And so it was time to head north. Alan was very excited by the prospect of a 'real' car ferry experience - 3.5 hours sailing the slightly choppy Cook Straits to windy Wellington. I was less excited at the prospect of arriving at 2am and having to find somewhere to sleep for the night, but I sailed onwards nevertheless. After a rather pleasant time watching the US Open women's final on the crossing we arrived in Wellington ready to find a spot to bed down. This ...

New Zealand: a land bigger than the UK that contains only four million people - and 1.2 million of those live in the largest city, Auckland.Our task, if we chose to accept it, was a 3000 mile drive around both islands in a camper van that Kate had dubbed 'Bernadette' - a name I found acceptable, but that was mostly so that I could hum 'Bernadette' by the Four Tops every time the van was mentioned.With Petrol at approximately one pound per litre, it was also going...