Roy Smart Hi Charlotte and Mark, my wife Lesley and I are fellow travellers in NZ and like you Lesley is working . She is a locum GP. We have been in NZ since September and leave in April, we have been to 5 locations - N Island Gisborne, Mangakino, S Island Cheviot, Twizel and at the moment Milton. We have travelled extensively between jobs in hired cars and campervans. Apex do roadrunner long term hire at $ 35 per day so we have one of these, a Nissan Sunny with 190,000 miles on the clock! Motorhome hire gets much cheaper over the winter, would recommend this for a few days. Lesley is PRIME trained so works with the St John's crews at accidents - farmers falling under quad bikes, road accidents, and hypothermic climbers! Hope you and Marc have a great time in NZ. We are going back to the UK via the Pacific and Florida soon to pick up where we left off last September. We are both in late 50's so maybe more time off on the horizon! I have kept an STA blog every week or so and we'll get it made into a book as a record of our NZ adventure. Folk as what I do - cooking, washing, ironing, shopping and a touch of feeling guilty that Lesley is doing the hard work! I can recommend the Tongariro Alpine Crossing just a day about 19 miles maybe get it in soon unless you are into winter walking! Best wishes Roy Smart