Geo: -38.1398, 176.24718th May RotoruaFinal leg of our tour but one of the things we've been looking forward to most: the "geothermal wonders" of Rotorua. Hamish has wanted to come ever since he was a child and saw pictures of the bubbling mud pools. It's only taken 40 years to get here !We had a long drive down from Waiheke Island and after nearly 4hours on the road (thank Goodness for a comfortable car !) we knew we were getting close – you can smell the town before you see it thanks to the subtle aroma of bad eggs caused by the sulphurous gases which emerge in plumes all over the place. Our motel overlooks Lake Rotorua and looking at the hills around all around really brings home the fact that everything we see is sitting ... read more

Geo: -36.8474, 174.76614th May.It's time to say good-bye to Wellington and head north again. We caught a bus from downtown to the airport which only took 30 minutes. Check in took exactly 5 minutes. We have been very impressed with the ease of checking in on Air New Zealand. You turn up at the airport, enter your details into a machine, out comes the luggage label and the boarding pass, you put your case on the conveyor belt and hey presto! You have checked in. Once again the weather had been kind to us and I (Alan) was able to take some great shots of Wellington from the air.Auckland was an hour's flying away. Picked up a new hire car at the airport. We opted for an upgrade to a larger car and we got a ... read more

Geo: -41.2708, 173.28411th May Blenheim & NelsonOn the road again though we would have loved to stay longer in Kaikoura. Our destination was Nelson on the north coast of South Island about 150 miles (240 km) away. For the first part of the route the road hugs the coast so was very pretty, if a little distracting for the driver. We stopped to see a seal colony on the rocks – very cute seal pups playing together.Later the road enters Marlborough wine country with acres and acres of vineyards. Fascinating for a teetotaller like me.... but Alan seemed to know the names. Pit stop in Blenhiem – yep, Blenheim/Marlborough/Nelson there was a definite military theme going here. Also a Todd's Valley. No sign of a Mount Ip, though. Half the names are very familiar- Cambridge, Canterbury, ... read more

Geo: -40.9006, 174.886One of the highlights of visiting Christchurch is to take the TranzAlpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth and that was what we did on 9th May. The journey went through some amazing scenery – towering, majestic mountains and vertigo-inducing river gorges. The three-and-a-half-hour journey to Moana was one fabulous view after another. The highest point is Arthur's Pass. At 739 m, it was the highest railway station in South Island. We passed some tiny settlements along the way, where in some places, the total population was fewer than 50. All of them were pretty cut off, especially in winter. Many of the settlements sprang up with the construction of the steam railway at the beginning of the 20th century which provided employment for engineers and repair workmen. But with the passing of steam engines, ... read more

Geo: -45.0311, 168.6637th MayFiordland and Milford Sound. We'd seen the brochure pictures with blue sky and snow-capped peaks - our experience was slightly different but equally impressive. We set off from Queenstown by coach at 6.55 while it was still dark and drove along the valley between Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables Mountains. Gradually as it got light we saw that the tops of the mountains were covered in low cloud which gave them a very forbidding appearance. Our driver was an old hand and full of stories about the place. Despite his jokes about alcoholism and a heart pace-maker we felt we were in safe hands. After two and a half hours we reached Te Anau (Gateway to Fiordland) which sits beside Lake Te Anau, the largest lake in South Island. Groups of intrepid walkers ... read more