It’s race time!

Before Rich and I set off on our travels we had one date in the diary that we knew would be a very special event. We had arranged to meet up with Rich’s parents, Maria and Maurice, in Melbourne to go to the Formula One Grand Prix! All of us have watched Formula One for […]

Holiday Time!

After four months of backpacking, spending on average no more than three nights in one place, Rich and I were yearning to stay in one place for a while. Backpacking is not difficult or hard work per se but it does take a lot of organising and effort to accomplish even the simplest of things like […]

Saying Au Revoir in Auckland

Rich and I spent our last three nights in New Zealand in Auckland. Being one of the top ten most expensive cities in the world to live in, we were thrilled to be able to stay with my old Didsbury Devil’s netball buddy Sarah and her husband Andy! We only had one full day to […]

Eeeek!

For me the prospect of going into a dark cave whilst wearing a wetsuit and helmet, carrying a rubber ring and walking through or floating across water that has black eels in it is not my idea of fun. That said, so many people had told us great stories of their black water rafting adventure […]

The World Cup in Wellington

Following our hugely successful day doing the Tongariro Crossing, Rich and I enjoyed a pleasant two hundred mile drive from Whakapapa to Wellington. It’s surprising how such a long drive can be considered pleasant but Highway One took us all the way down to the southern tip of the North Island without any issues and with barely […]

Walking through an active volcanic zone

Following our relaxing stay in Havelock North, we drove one hundred and sixty miles to Whakapapa, based in the Tongariro National Park. The Tongariro National Park is home to the volcanic peaks of Ngauruhoe, Tongariro and Ruapehu and is ranked as one of the top ten day walks in the world. As we drove up to Whakapapa we were […]

Play Time

Following a relatively short fifty mile drive to Taupo, Rich and I were welcomed to the lakeside town with blue skies, fluffy white clouds and a cool breeze that offset the heat from the sun. We only had one night in Taupo and when we arrived we wished we had booked more. It’s a beautiful […]

Reeking Rotorua

If there is ever be a time when you should be grateful that scratch and sniff computer screens haven’t been invented yet, the time is now. If it weren’t for the fact that Rich and I are skinflints and had paid for two nights in a backpackers in Rotorua, we might have carried on driving straight […]

Cloudy Coromandel

As Rich I and I drove away from Paihia, our sadness about leaving was mirrored by the sad weather. The sky was cloudy and the rain fell during our two hundred and sixty mile, six hour drive to the Coromandel peninsula. We were headed to Whitianga on the east coast of the peninsula and the town […]

Aye aye captain

Our South Island adventure finished on a high swimming with dolphins. We’d had a fantastic five weeks exploring the quiet wilderness of it but now we were excited to see what the North Island had in store for us. Following a quick pit stop in Christchurch to return our trusty hire car we flew up to […]