We've reached Auckland - our last stop in New Zealand - and are staying with Kate's cousin, Judy and her partner Gavin. This is the view from their balcony. Dreadful isn't it? As you can see the sun is shining. That shouldn't be a cause for particular comment in Auckland but it is at the moment. The weather in the North Island has been dreadful with torrential rain and flooding. It particularly affected the far North which, if you've been paying attention, you'l...

Our last photo of the week in New Zealand has to be one of our home for most of the time that we've been here. (Not a particularly good photo but the only one we have. Taken at the motorhome park in Wellington.) A camper van is a great way to travel around these islands and a very popular one too. At times it seemed as if every second vehicle on the road was a camper van - especially on South Island. Camper vans come in three classes. There are the bigger and b...

Well a drive actually. In fact a 64 mile drive on the evocatively, if inaccurately, named '90 Mile Beach'. A beautiful, wide expanse of sand that stretches almost to the top of North Island's west coast, it is officially part of the state highway network. We are visiting the far North of New Zealand, staying at the southern end of the beach in Ahipara and taking a coach trip as we're not allowed to drive our rental van on the beach itself. This area is known as ...

You can do just about any activity imaginable in New Zealand. The campsite where I'm writing this blog, for example, has leaflets advertising diving, surfing (including kite and sand), skydiving, kayaking, golf, dolphin cruises, sailing, natural history trips, rock climbing, quad biking, horse trekking, caving, helicopter or light aeroplane flights, ten-pin bowling, paintball and lazer combat. And that's without all the cultural and arts and craft activities. Jus...

A bit late with the photo of the week for week 4. Have we really been away a month? New Zealand is famous for many things but one, which gets the naturalists (as opposed to the naturists) really excited, is its flora and fauna. Breaking away from Australia 85 million years ago, before mammals had developed, New Zealand has evolved a set of unique animals and plants. The UK has 2 species that occur nowhere else. New Zealand has 80,000. Over 80% of the all the ani...