We left the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park to travel to the dramatic West coast. We retraced our route back to highway 6 which follows the way early settlers used and passes through a one street town Muchison. This former logging town has transformed itself into an adventure capital offering white water rafting and other thrill experiences. We stuck to sampling the coffee in one of the several coffee shops and very nice it was too. Onwards down highway 6 ...

In all the guidebooks one of the must see destinations mentioned is the Abel Tasman National Park so we decided to see what all the fuss was about. We were not disappointed and here are our five reasons why you should visit. The stunning coastline - Abel Tasman is the Amalfie Coast of New Zealand. Tall cliffs lined with golden beaches and magnificent rocky outcrops. Of course it is much less populated than its italien counterpart but just as dramatic. The amazi...

Today we really found out what The Goat can do on the road as we travelled from Hamner Springs to Motueka on the north coast next to the Able Tasmin national park. Driving The Goat, so named after the registration plate, is a bit like driving a big sofa. She bombs along at 100 km/hrs (the national speed limit) but is rather pedestrian when it comes to going up hills. Also Harriet is getting used to driving an automatic and is a bit freaked out about the lack ...

Just to finish off our time in the North Island we got stick in the Friday night motorway traffic jams in Aucklan as the city folk made their exit to their batches, holiday homes, but still had time for our lovely Mexican meal. we were up early for a short flight to Christchurch and our thee week adverture in the south island. It was on the flight we spotted our first hobbit. The safety video for air new zealand included hobbits, gandalf, elves and other mons...

Just putting this one in so it shows the flight to christchurch