Thursday 5th AprilWe go fishing on Lake Taupo in the afternoon. I'm intrigued to see the difference between lake and sea fishing as I've only ever fished in the sea with Dad and I've always really enjoyed that.It's a nice day for it. A little cloudy so not too hot but no rain in sight. It's a lovely little boat and the 15 horse power Honda engine whips us across the lake. Apparently Lake Taupo is the size of Singapore and is the largest lake i...

Tuesday 3rd AprilI'm so excited about today. I'm walking the Tongariro Crossing - one of the best one day walks in New Zealand. It's a 17km hike with an 800metre ascent up Mount Ngaurahoe, then a 1200m descent down the back of Mount Tongariro. Simon is going off fishing in Lake Taupo to see if he can catch something for our dinner. Yum. I meet Gary and Sasha on the shuttle bus to the start of the walk. Gary is a Scotsman and Sasha is from Toronto. We ...

Monday 2nd AprilWe drive to Levin and meet Justine's parents. Her Dad runs a deer farm so we head up there and meet their pet deer Alice. I've never been so close to one in my life - it's amazing. Alice is just lovely and thinks that Justine's Dad is her Mum. How cute. He tells us all about how was one of the first people to start actually farming deer for food around 30 yeras ago and walks us through all the yards and shows us the antlers which a...

Saturday 31st MarchWe get the ferry from Picton to Wellington and we're met by Justine who is one of the girls from my Africa trip. It's wonderful to see her and we chat away over drinks and dinner. She invites us to come up to parents place in Levin when we're passing through so we arrange to meet up in a couple of days.Sunday 1st AprilThe weather isn't great so we head to Wellingtons purpose built brand new museum, Te Papa, which is just massive...

Friday 30th March We take ourselves off on a wine tour on bicycles today. Well - it would be rude not to considering we're in the most famous wine region in New Zealand. Hee hee. We start off at Wither Hills and I try to sip appreciatively at the various wines before me even though it's 10'o'clock in the morning! We cycle along to Villa Maria, then Matua Valley and buy a bottle of chardonnay to go with dinner tonight. We're visiting Clare a...