After several months with no travel, it was great to get away again - this time to the scenic North Island of New Zealand. The purpose of our trip was a new year's eve beach wedding at Paraparaumu Beach, which was a great evening even though the weather forced a change of plans. We landed in Wellington on a miserable day and drove the scenic route around the bay through the small harbour city. We didn't see much worth stopping for in Wellington, so went straight up to the sleepy seaside town of Paraparaumu and checked into our nearby accommodation at Raumati Beach. The wedding was at Nga Manu Nature Reserve in the nearby town of Waikanae. The nature reserve is on a very picturesque 13 hectares and was full of diverse flora and fauna. We ... read more

The Big Island of Hawai'i is certainly one of the most geologically interesting places I have been in the world. From the moment we picked up the car from Kona airport and started driving the 110 miles to the town of Volcano (not a very creative town name!), where we were staying for the first two days of our stay on the big Island, we realised this was no ordinary landscape. The drive from the airport goes through some tropical jungle and amazing beaches along the coast, which then suddenly becomes completely dry, dead, barren land and then becomes mountainous and rocky. We also encountered fierce stormy weather and blazing sunshine during the 3 hour drive. This island was completely schitzophrenic! Our lodge in Volcano was a supurb tropical retreat, and the owners prepared us an ... read more

We loved our visit to Vancouver, a city that is surrounded by water, temperate rainforest and an abundance of outdoor activities. We were very fortunate to stay with friends who lived downtown and got a bit of an inside tour of the area including some great local bars. We walked around town, checking out the various neighbourhoods as well as spotting a few film productions going on. Vancouver is actually the 3rd largest film production centre in North America after LA and NY. We headed off to Granville Island, actually a peninsula south of downtown that used to be an industrial manufacturing area, but is now converted to a huge market area selling mostly food (including seafood straight off the boat) as well as containing the microbrewery Granville Island Brewery and also has a million boats ... read more

We really enjoyed our all too brief trip to Montreal, a city that seems to suffer from an identity crisis but is a great city to visit with beautiful natural features, a fascinating history and a vibrant population. I started the morning in a very healthy way, going for a 10km run, the first half of which was along the picturesque McGill University, where all of the staff were on strike and protesting, and then up the very steep Mont Royal, a huge park on the hill that overlooks the city. The views from the top were fantastic on this very sunny morning so I stopped for a break and then ran back down the hill which was much easier! There were so many people out running, riding and even doing some weird sort of cross ... read more

We had another free day in Split after our Bosnian day trip, which we used to check out the incredible old town dominated by Diocletion’s Palace– one of the world’s most impressive Roman monuments. Diocletrion was a 3rd century AD Roman Emperor who decided to retire to Split. I can understand why, it’s a beautiful harbour town and combined with the fact that it had sulphur deposits. The palace itself is a huge area taking up several blocks from the harbour. We kicked off the morning by climbing the Bell Tower, which was a very narrow steep staircase, but at the top we were rewarded with excellent 360 degree views of the city and harbour area. From there we went to Marjan Hill, a tough climb in the 30 degree plus weather but worth it once ... read more