Today's expedition was to the volcanic landscapes of Rotorua which claim to be the youngest volcanic lands in the world (but I'm sure folks in Iceland would challenge this!). We spent two hours walking through a shattered landscape torn apart by two huge eruptions in 1886 and 1917. Since then nature has taken over to produce a luscious forest of trees and ferns including pungas or as Monty Don would call them tree ferns. Our walk started high up at the visito...

Yesterday we travelled from Auckland by hire car to the wonderfully named Mount Maunganui. The Mount is a big piece of rock attached to the mainland by a sandy peninsula. It makes a great holiday destination with almost 360 degree beaches. It's also where our friends Ade and Leanne live with there lovely children Maddie and Callum. Today we took a well earned rest from travelling and spent the day by the seaside. After a leisurely breakfast we ambled up the m...

We had a really informative day in Auckland so here are some of the things we learnt. At the Auckland museum we were intrigued at the examples of moari wood carving and weaving with new zealand flax. No demonstration of the hacker but I'm sure somewhere on our trip there will be one. We were amazed to find out that the first moari settlers got to New Zealand only 800 years ago at a similar time to king John signing the Magna Carta. There seems to be coffee sho...

We're actually in Auckland but we have more to tell you from Singapore before we give you our highlights if the biggest NZ city. Our hotel in was the exotically named Aqueen jalel basar not far from little India and in a great position for exploring the city. The comfortable beds were very welcome after 14 hours on an airoplane. The rooms were clean and cosy, just enough room for us and our luggage. Singapore is full of people eating in small street cafes call...

As we hadn't been to Singapore before we weren't quite sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. Here are five of the best things about Singapore. The night safari- this is a unique experience, standing right behind a sleeping leopard while hearing lions growl in the background. And otters playing with their kitts. The humans were interesting to watch as well. When they saw an interesting animal they cooed like chickens! The Arab quarter - lots of i...