Man, I'm tired! We got up really early this morning to drive out to Havelock for our first water sport of the holiday - kayaking! Well, they were more like big, inflatable tandem canoes, but still! There were only 3 other people on our trip and we were driven out to the Wakamarina River - which apparently has lots of gold in it. There are some rapids along the river, just enough to make it exciting, but not so extreme that it becomes dangerous. We had an awesome ...

We drove to Blenheim this morning - a nice, small town about 25 minutes away from Picton. Our main reason for going was to visit the "i-site" - these information centres are all over New Zealand and they are so useful. They are full of leaflets and maps about the area and not only do they have good deals and recommendations, but they also book things for you, completely free of charge. This is especially helpful when you don't have a New Zealand phone number! I ...

Today we left windy Wellington behind to catch the ferry to Picton, on the South Island. Tim had told me how scenic the journey is (and you would hope so as it takes four hours!) but unfortunately, our views were somewhat obscured by heavy rain and low clouds. It did clear up a little as we entered the Marlborough Sounds so we could at least go out on deck for the arrival into Picton. We are staying at Waikawa Bay Holiday Park for two nights, just 10 minutes awa...

Hello from a wet and windy Wellington! Yesterday we drove from New Plymouth to Wellington via Palmerston North (not much to see there). It should have been a 5 hour journey max but ended up being 7 hours thanks to roadworks about 20km north of Wellington. After going round in circles a few times (thanks to various one way systems), we finally found Gilmer Serviced Apartments, where we are staying in a studio for two nights. We are LOVING a little breather from th...

Despite Phil being a zombie for a while after our early wake up call this morning, we made it to North Egmont Visitor Centre to begin climbing Mt Taranaki at 9am. Thankfully, there wasn't a cloud in the sky! We had been warned that the volcano is too dangerous to climb in bad weather. After layering on the 50+ sun cream, we were well on our way up the first steep track towards the summit - known locally as "The Puffer". The volcano looked spectacular, albeit a l...