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 […]

A surprise in Kaikoura

Home to vast underwater canyons, Kaikoura is a sea animal lovers paradise. The deep canyons provide nutrient rich water that attracts the smallest and largest of sea life. Rich and I headed to Kaikoura in anticipation of swimming with wild dusky dolphins and we were not disappointed. We arrived at Dusky Lodge Backpackers early in […]

Water & Wine

As we left Motueka the rain began to fall and the journey to our next stop in Nelson was somewhat blighted by it. Infact our whole stay in Nelson was blighted by the rain. We spent the day at the backpackers either playing games, doing puzzles (Rich) or blogging (me). We hoped for clear skies the follow […]