27 March. Today was another damp start but heading south down the SH16 we stopped for a couple of hours at the excellent Kauri Museum at Kaiwakao. This was well worth a visit as it illustrates in grand and sometimes graphic style the history of sawmilling in this area from about 1830 to 1965 as well as some beautiful pieces of work made from the Kauri wood. From here we pressed on south and ended up at a lovely campsite on the coast at Muriwai. This is set in one of 26 regional parks around Auckland and offers good value for money, a lovely location, free wireless internet (best reception in the laundry/tv room!). The beach is popular for surfing and para sailing and they have a resident colony of gannets on the outcrop. It was ... read more

18 19 March Exploring the Forgotten World Highway between Stratford and Taumarunui Last night we spent the evening with Jim and Nerida Ramsey at their wonderful apartment overlooking Fitzroy Beach in New Plymouth (thanks guys for the meal, chat and a comfy bed!. We look forward to seeing you again in June back in Curry Rivel) After saying farewell, we set off from New Plymouth back the 25k to Stratford to pick up the Forgotten World Highway. This 155km adventure ends in Taunarunui on the Central Plateau. It follows ancient Maori routes and pioneering farm tracks through ambitious historic settlements, untamed native bush and stunning natural scenery (quote, unquote) There are over 30 historic and natural points of interest including natural geographical ‘saddles’ offering spectacular views, manmade tunnels, walkways, arboretum, the republic Whangamomona, waterfalls, gorges and ... read more

Today in complete contrast to yesterday we woke up to bright sunshine and fluffy white clouds so a perfect day to visit the glacier. Originally our plan was to do a guided walk on the lower part of the glacier but Tony didn’t want to risk his foot on the difficult walk to the glacier face so Marina ended up doing the top of the range Heli hike which involved a flight up to the FJ icefall (quite near the top) and a 2 hour guided walk amongst glacial ice formations normally only seen by experienced mountaineers. The heli flight was smooth and we rose quickly with fantastic views of the sun glistened mountains, cascading waterfalls that looked small until you got up close and dropping several hundred metres. We climbed to about xxxxxxxmetres (xxxx feet) ... read more

We drove out to the Otago Peninsula with stunning scenery across to Dunedin and across the harbour. The Royal Albatross Centre was rapidly packing up with tourists and the only way to see the birds we were informed was by a guided walk. Seeing as it was cold and windy and Tony didn’t want to spend too much time on his feet we decided to explore for ourselves and low and behold we found a free film on these splendid birds and then, following a short walk down the cliff, we encountered several of them flying around as well as a seal trying manfully but in vain to be washed up on the rocks by the rough, white crested waves. Moral of the story – beware of guided tours!. From here we took the higher and ... read more

2 and 3 March. Today we transferred to Sydney without anything exceptional happening. Our flight to Christchurch was delayed by an hour so it was late when we arrived (around 01.00 am). They had arranged wheelchair assistance for me which enabled us to fast track through immigration and baggage but we had to open our cases at Environmental Control because we’d been walking in the forest in the Blue Mountains and our boots might have been carrying some undesirable bug. Anyway the nice lady with the nicely pressed uniform and holstered Smith and Weston hand gun took my boots and gave them a jolly good clean with some sanitizer but for some reason wouldn’t apply leather dubbing and weatherproof when I asked her! Because our bed and breakfast in Christchurch, booked before the quake hit, couldn’t ... read more