Well NZ is almost done and dusted. The last few weeks have been spent travelling up the east coast of the South Island to Christchurch. After Stewart Is we headed up to Dunedin where, unfortunately, we landed ourselves a flat tyre. But, looking to secure my place in the McLaren team, I had it changed in about 20 minutes - lightning! We were staying out on the Otago peninsula and it was a wee bit wet to say the least! But that didn't deter the penguins and we managed to catch sight of lots of them - both out in the [View Full Entry]

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After visiting the Milford Sound we wanted to visit its larger neighbour the Doubtful Sound so we booked ourselves on an overnight cruise. We met our skipper and fellow travellers, all two of them and set off across lake Manapouri on a speed boat. This took us about 40 minutes before boarding a bus for another 40 minutes to cross Wilmott Pass before finally reaching the Sound where we climbed aboard M V Waverley - our home for the night. We cruised on through the sound with only one or two other boats on the water, we felt in the middle [View Full Entry]

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Awaking with my nuts hiding somewhere deep inside my chest, my toe escaped outside the tiny duvet and almost dropped off - it was clear it was bloody freezing outside and Rodders is not too well insulated. Both absolutley freezing we got up and put on all the layers we had before heading to the kitchen which was nice and warm. After a bit of breakfast and a thorough defrosting we headed off to the start of the Routeburn track. Being 1 of NZ's 'Great Walks' we though it would be well signposted and easy to find with the usual large [View Full Entry]

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As we made our way down the west coast the first thing we came across was the Pancake Rocks, these were rocks that had layered very thinly on top of each other that looked like guess what...pancakes!! They were really cool and the sea around them was very rough that water kept blowing up through blow holes, which was quite a sight too. Next on the agenda were the glaciers; Franz Josef and Fox. When we got to Franz Josef town we decided to investigate the helicopter flights over the top of the two glaciers, we were planning on doing one [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in the South Island first on the list was wine tasting! The Malborough region is covered with vinyards just waiting to be sampled, so naturally, we had to oblige! Our tour took in about 5 wineries all giving lots and lots of tastings - Pauline was nearly on the floor after the first winery gave us about 8 wines to sample! Fully loaded up on wine for a while we headed north to the Abel Tasman national park - so named after a dutch guy (yes, called Abel Tasman) who founded New Zealand, but unfortunately for him, got butchered by [View Full Entry]

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After an adventurous morning of jumping out of planes we headed to Wai-O-Tapu thermal area - a much calmer environment! Here we saw lots of craters and mud pools that were a variety of different colours due to the minerals in the rocks; there were green, red, orange, blue and black, all were very impressive if not a little smelly! The following day we drove down to the coast stopping at Himatangi beach. There was not a lot to do here, so we walked along the beach and then chilled in the sun in the caravan park....a hard life. Next stop [View Full Entry]

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At 9.00am this morning we jumped out of a plane at 12,000ft. What a wake up call! It was absolutely fantastic and a real adrenalin rush - once we got past the initial 'oh my god what the hell are we doing!!!' phase. I was first on the plane which inevitably meant last out so had to watch the plane empty before my eyes before it was my turn to throw myself out. Pauline was last in which (fortunately she says) meant she was first out! At 12,000ft, feet dangling over the edge, a stranger strapped to your back its hard [View Full Entry]

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At last we are getting some sunshine again! After a week of some rather dubious weather it is back on track... but only just! After our successful carvings we headed back up north on the Coromandel Peninsula and went right up to the tip staying in a really nice and extremely remote campsite in Port Jackson. Our site was right on the beach and as the weather was being kind it was beautiful. The following day we drove the extra 3km to the end of the road to a place called Fletchers Bay. From here we walked round the end of [View Full Entry]

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You will be glad to know that Rodders is fixed and back on the road! It turned out we had a leak in the water hose that provides the engine coolant, a little hole in the exhaust and a busted tyre. It was all quite minor though - the mechanic had it all done in an hour and it onlt cost us forty quid, thats including labour and tax - bonus!! Back on the road we headed for Waipoa forest where all the legendery Kauri trees are. These are huge trees, not so much in height but in width, I think [View Full Entry]

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Well, here we are in a civilised, english speaking, fish and chip eating, toilet roll flushing down the toilet country - Yee Haa! After around 30 hours on planes, waiting in airports, more planes, more airports, buses and many other interesting things associated with globe trotting we landed in Auckland, New Zealand, at 4 in the morning having lost a day and not knowing up from down. Once our tent had been a-ok'd by the ministry of dirty south american diseases, we were cleared and ready to roll, but had to wait for the buses to start so sat some more [View Full Entry]

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