We left Whakapapa on Saturday morning and headed south via Wanganui, back down to Wellington. We spent the night at "Moana Lodge" in Plimmerton and headed into the capital for a meal and the chance to see Quantum of Solace again on a big cinema screen. The next day we caught the ferry across to South Island and drove home via Marlborough and Kaikoura, stopping to see the seal colonies and 'Cobb Cottage' - an original settler's cobb cottage that has miraculously survived the years of earthquakes that have flattened all it's contemporaries. In total, we covered 3149km in just over two weeks but it helped that petrol was down to a $1.289/litre (with supermarket vouchers) which is pretty cheap. It's on it's way up again though. The wine was great as was the food and ... read more

On Wednesday morning, we packed up and decided to drive to Auckland via the long way (i.e. anti-clockwise around the Coromandel Peninsula). This gave us the chance to revisit Kuaotunu where we had spent Em's birthday last year, and also revisit Coromandel Town. This gave us the opportunity to chill out and have (vegetarian) breakfast at Tim's favourite cafe in the whole of NZ the Driving Creek Cafe . Afterwards, we drove south, along the stunning Coromandel west coast, with views over to Auckland in the distance, picked up lunch from Pak'N'Save in Thames before leaving the Peninsula and deciding to drive the long way via Miranda along the 'Seabird coast' and find a lunch stop somewhere along the way. We arrived in Auckland, late afternoon, and checked in to our backpackers in Mount Eden which ... read more

The next day (Friday) we reluctantly packed up and left 'Airini Lodge' and set off on our drive up to the Coromandel where we were camping for the next four nights. On the way, we stopped in at the 'Craggy Range' and 'Te Mata' wineries (where we picked up a rather unusal bottle of Gamay Noir) and then stocked up on fresh fruit at one of the many Orchards in Hawkes Bay. The drive to Taupo (our stopover location) was very pleasant and it was nice to head inland again. We arrived at the lake, late afternoon, checked into our backpackers and then found a decent Italian restaurant for dinner. Just wanted to post a few pictures of the black swans we met on the lake shore.... read more

Late on Christmas Day, we packed up the car and on Boxing Day we headed north, bound for Anakiwa in the Marlborough Sounds. We drove SH1, following the Pacific Ocean's stunning craggy coast and stopped to eat leftovers from Christmas as a packed lunch just north of Kaikoura. In contrast to the rainy Christmas Day we'd just experienced the weather had decided to become summer again and we had a great day road tripping. We passed through the towns and vineyards of the Marlborough wine region (resisting the temptation to stop at Wineries) and then bought provisions in Havelock before driving around the edge of Queen Charlotte Sound. We arrived late afternoon at the excellent Anakiwa Backpackers in time to meet the new owners (plus dog and 12-week old kitten) and cool off by jumping straight ... read more

On Monday, after breakfast in Darling Harbour, we walked through the CBD and took in some shops, before arriving at Circular Quay to meet Dan and Nat to catch the ferry over to Taronga Zoo to see some Australian animals. Taronga Zoo is a great place to catch Wombats, Kangaroos, Wallabies, Platypus, Quokka etc. etc. if you only have a short time in the city. Towards the end of the day we got caught in quite a heavy rainstorm, just in time for the ferry cruise back to the city (which went via Watson's Bay and Luna Park). In the evening, we met up with everyone at the 'Blue Horizon' bar (on the 36th floor of the Shangri La Hotel) for drinks before heading back down to Circular Quay' for dinner at the fantastic 'Cafe Sydney' ... read more