Before we get to the caves, I’m going to collapse a few days journeying into one paragraph here. From Wellington, we travelled to the Martinborough wine region. I won’t write too much about it, because–in truth–it’s not that good and the cellar doors charged for tastings, which miffed us a bit (it wasn’t obvious that […]

We left the south island in a bit of a hurry and a bit of a strop. On reflection, maybe we should have hung-in for a few more days in Picton to do a great wreck dive and get some yacht sailing in. Squiffy wouldn’t have typed that last sentence — she’s had it with […]

The world’s largest passenger ferry shipwreck is sunk just off the coast of the south island of New Zealand, near Picton. As a scuba dive, it sounds like a really cool dive. The local dive companies will even take people into the dining room/ballroom to see the drinks bar, screwed-down tables and the chandeliers hanging […]

Folk in Ballarat, Australia, use the phrase “save water, drink wine” rather a lot. Perhaps they should bung the south island of New Zealand a bunch of money to pipe them some of the rain that we’ve experienced whilst here. Problem solved. We’ve now in Blenheim in the Marlborough region, one of the finest wine […]

If you’ve been following this blog since we left home over nineteen months ago, you’ll probably have noted the many photos of us sat in thermal springs around the world. I love going to open air spas with a view, and taking a few photos to remind me of the location. And recently, I like […]

Still buzzing from our helicopter flight and glacier landing, we pointed our diminuitively-sized “microcamper” (read: small estate car) towards the thermal baths at Hanmer Springs. The water at Fox and Franz Josef is a curious, yellowish colour and so with the childhood phrase “don’t eat yellow snow” ringing in our minds, instead of filling our […]

The rain followed us from Queenstown to Wanaka, where we spoilt ourselves with two nights in a well priced, rather nice ski lodge just out of town. Rather than get even more wet, we rejoiced in the shelter that four walls and a roof provide and caught-up with our blogs. Next stop, Glacier Country. We […]

Since leaving Dunedin, it’s been a few days since we’ve seen a place with much life. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Queesnstown was a buzzing alpine town, set between a lake and pine tree covered mountains. It had plenty of restaurants, shops and internet cafes to keep us entertained, and the only let […]

First off, let me tell you that Milford Sound is actually a fiord (or fjord, if you’re Scandinavian). What’s the difference? Fiords are carved by glaciers, sounds are not. Or something. Oh, I don’t know so I’ll refer to the information on the Real Journeys website: What is the difference between a sound and a […]

We’re in glorious Te Anau, the closest town to the Milford Sound fiordlands. The Top 10 Holiday Park here, whilst relatively expensive, easily wins my “Best Campsite” award, globally. The ultra-shabby Torquay Foreshore Caravan Park in Australia would do really well to pick-up a few hundred tips from these guys. To boot, Te Anau’s a […]