January 8, 2012 by Craig I will never come back to the South Island of NZ again.......because we have just enjoyed two weeks of it in absolute sunny splendor, and I seriously doubt that luck would favour that again. While the South island basked in sunshine, the North was miserable and rainy the whole time that we were here. We did not go to the North island, thankfully, but apparently the place is drenched and most places had to cancel NYE events (hopefully will be sunny for you in Feb-March, Thomas, which is the best time to travel in North island). The last part of the trip involved travel from Nelson in the North around to Kaikoura back on the East coast and so down to Christchurch - where we started. While in Nelson, we drove ... read more

january 2, 2012 by Craig Hello, or Kia Ora, from NZ. We have been here now for 11days and have had 11 straight days of sunshine. Must be some sort of record for the South Island of NZ? ! From Milford Sound we traveled up to Queenstown, where we stayed for a few days, including NYE. The three of us became smitten with the place, perhaps due to its innate beauty, the glorious weather and the buzzy atmosphere. Queenstown is the adventure capital of NZ - home of bungee jumping, etc. Whatever you want to do, you can do it here. We did not partake in any of the adrenal-surging stuff, but instead took the gondola up the mountain for awesome views back over the city, Lake Wakatipu on which it sits, and the huge surrounding ... read more

Episode 8: South Africa Post Script: Photos. by Craig (23.9.11) Hi everyone. We have been back home for two weeks, but the South Africa trip is still vivid in my memory. Some of our best photos are shown below (these are the same as those I posted on Facebook a week or so ago). Craig... read more

Episode 6 (1.10.11) - by Craig. Whale, sharks and the Western Cape. Hello to everyone back home. We are currently in the Cape Town region, in the South Western corner of South Africa. The city is beautiful - we saw it in sunshine as we arrived but the next few days will apparently be cloudy. Well, prior to arriving in Cape Town, we picked up a hire car and drove two hours South East, to the town of Gansbaai (pronounced Huns-by ), the self professed "great white shark capital of the world". Nowhere else in the world are Great White Sharks so accessible (15 mins from shore, where they feed on a resident seal population.) They are a magnificent animal and the world's largest and most feared predatory shark. I had booked a white shark cage ... read more

Episode 4: 20..9.11 Title: Down by the Riverbank Starring: jackals, 65 vultures, a hear of elephants, some hippos, impala, warthogs, zebras, a 350 strong herd of buffalo, crocodiles, and one dead buffalo Special guest stars: A pride of lions. Location: A riverbank outside Satara Restcamp in Kruger Park. Script: We had heard that the lions had killed the buffalo the previous day. We first saw some baby hippos out of the water. Then the lion pride started to defend their kill from jackals and vultures,. A heard of elephants came down and drank, sensed the lions then took off. The jackals and lions played cat and mouse. Then, over the horizon, a huge heard of buffalo appeared. They amassed at the riverbank to drink, either not knowing or not caring about the lions resting in the ... read more