So we didn't quite manage to keep up to date with our blog towards the end of our stay in NZ so here is a brief overview of the last week or so in the land of the long white cloud. Lake Tekapo was absolutely stunning and although we only spent one night there, we managed to go for a nice long walk and go for a swim in the freezing lake water... Well Sophie went for a swim - Marie just dipped her toe in and then decided against it. In Christchurch we were lucky ...

"When God made Heaven and Earth, he must have started with New Zealand" (Steve the Australian photographer - more about him later) So it's been a while since we last updated you all on our adventures and a lot has happened so there is lots to tell, but let us start where we left off last... Travelling further South the highlights have been: Taupo - having booked in advance, we did not realise we had chosen the remotest campsite possible so we began our stay wi...

So we arrive in one of the most isolated major landmasses, originally populated around 800 years ago by the Maori people who managed to scare off Abel Tasman. It was not until years later when James Cook on his way to Tahiti finally made a breakthrough and decided on his second visit that it might be worth the Birtish interest to colonise the land. There are no indiginous mammals in New Zealand and before the Brittish settlers came the Maori's main source of prot...