It was a relatively short hop from Monterey but we arrived into San Francisco into a busy Memorial Day bank holiday weekend. We chose well for our accommodation just behind Fisherman’s wharf a busy bustling waterfront with ferries across the bay, many eateries - including popular seafood restaurants, museums and street entertainers to make things lively. To get a flavour of what the city has to offer we jumped on a city sightseeing bus just outside our motel. The bus had live commentary delivered at a 100mph, he hardly drew breath even when we got stuck in traffic. We went past downtown SF, the Italian quarter, Chinatown and other famous parts of the city. One story we were told was the creator of the Golden Gate park who managed to actually create it on sand dunes. ... read more

A four-hour flight from Auckland took us to the tiny island of Raratonga one of the 15 Cook Islands in the South Pacific. It had been suggested that we could stopover in Tahiti, which was exciting enough, but on researching, the Cook Islands seem to have better reviews. We landed in pouring rain, not very tropical, but we had a warm welcome, first a singer with ukulele (we later found out he had been welcoming, and seeing off people for 30 years!) then a flower necklace put around our necks. For the first time since we left, we will in the staying in the same place for a whole week, 8 days to be precise. Although we left New Zealand on Saturday, because we travelled across the international dateline, we arrived on Friday - how cool ... read more

If there is a more attractive car ferry route, I don’t know it. As the ship winds its way through the Queen Charlotte and Tory sounds finally crossing the Cook Straits into the harbour at Wellington. Arriving late in the day we overnighted at a campsite outside the city. Keen to move north we just spent the morning in Wellington to see the Te Papa museum. It is dedicated to New Zealand culture and heritage. It told stories of the early settlers both Maori, European and other migrants. A machine allowed you to see whether you would be able to stay in the country regarding your age, education, vocation, etc the machine rejected both of us, looks like we’re staying in Britain! Two other notable exhibits were the Gallipoli exhibit which was well put together including ... read more

We’d had lovely journey on our first week in New Zealand, passed lovely scenery and explored towns but things were getting a bit…safe. Queenstown our next stop, is a busy small town on the north side of Lake Wakatipu, has made its name as a centre for extreme sports. The first ever commercial bungee jump was made at the nearby Kawarau bridge. If you are willing to spend some dollars, you can go skydiving, white water rafting, canyoning, rock climbing amongst many other activities. Our eye was taken by a large poster showing the Shotover Jet boat. 50 years ago an entrepreneur had the idea to take people on boat rides up the aptly named Shotover River on a then newly designed Jet boat. After some research, if you are going to separate yourself with your ... read more

Oops, We’d only had the hire camper 24hrs and already broke it. Another car flashed us and I looked in the mirror only to see the power chord trailing along the road minus the connector. We were looking forward to flying into New Zealand. After months of trains and buses we were excited to have our own transport, a Toyota HiAce camper. We pre-booked this in the UK and because of the good price we received, didn’t expect too much. But it turned out to be newer and more spacious than we expected. As we were in Christchurch, a major NZ city we chose a campsite just a bus ride away from the city centre. Back in 2011, Christchurch suffered a major earthquake which killed a 185 people. I remember seeing the reports on the news ... read more