Apr 13, 2013 - Hamilton Rugby

We slept in a wooden cabin when we returned from Raglan it was pretty basic but we did have a room to are self's which was a result! Today we went to watch The Chiefs vs The Reds it was very easy to get tickets and tickets only cost like £12 or so, the match was wicked much different style of rugby to in England alot more open!

Apr 11, 2013 - Raglan

Yesterday we got a bus from Hamilton to Raglan we didn't know much about Raglan but we did know it had good surf so we thought we would see alot of surfer's, which we have. We are staying in a YHA hostel but alot different then all the other ones we have stayed in before. This rooms in this hostel are in reused train carriages and everything is run my solar power and its got the whole Eco thing going on! So today we spent the day walking on the beach to Raglan from hostel which is about roughly two hours away so pretty much are Eco hostel...

Apr 8, 2013 - Ohakune

Said goodbye to Heather and drove north to Ohakune. Thank you Heather for your hospitality. It was a pleasure visiting you. I hope we meet again one day. We stopped for lunch at a small lake in Wanganui. Here we saw Mallard Ducks from Canada, Mute Swans and House Sparrows from Europe, Blackbirds from Asia, Black Swans from Australia, Muscovy Ducks from Mexico and even a few native New Zealand birds. It is a shame that people brought all these birds here from other countries and now the NZ birds are a minority in their own country. The...

Apr 7, 2013 - Week 1 - Auckland - LA

Flew out of Auckland for our long flight to LA - 1st 30 min always fun then boring..................................................................................................................................................................................

Apr 4, 2013 - Martinborough

I decided to explore the Cape Palliser area which is the south-east corner of the North Island, before heading north to Auckland. Today we drove to Martinborough, which is on the other side of a mountain range from Wellington. The road over the mountains was steep and windy. The weather is very changeable now. Somtimes it is sunny for 30 minutes, then it rains for a while, then sunny agian, and so on. Most of the time it is dark and cloudy but without rain. The days are getting shorter. It is now dark by 7:30 p.m.

Apr 4, 2013 - Looking around Wellington

We got the ferry in the morning from Picton to Wellington then we went for a look around Wellington. The next day we had a rest day that we spent in Wellington, Dad spent the morning going to the Parliament building new and old and had tours around both. I spent the morning doing the washing/walking around Wellington. In the afternoon we both went to the Wellington Lookout which dad saw a house he would like to buy/rent!

Apr 2, 2013 - End of Queen Charlotte Track

Today was the day we are walking out, it says it will take 8 hours to get to the finish and are ferry leaves at 330pm so to be sure we got up at 5am and left at 6am, the first two hours were the hardest because it was all uphill so it was a good call to leave earlier when it was cooler because later on it got really hot! We completed the walk in 6 hours so we had two hours to wait for the boat! be early is better then be late i guess, the boat was early then we went back to Picton, got a hostel and i had fish and chips for my dinner then we...

Mar 31, 2013 - Day 2 on Queen Charlotte Track

Day 2 on the track was mixed, the weather half the time horrible and half the time amazing but dad wasn't in the best of moods because his pack was hurting him, (I told him to man up!) It was a hard and long day it took 7 hours to do all the km to the campside but we got there! The bird in the picture is called a Weka and there were really really annoying! Woke us up at 2am each night and kept trying to take are food!

Mar 31, 2013 - Art & Museum

We stayed at an awesome hotel with interesting art in the lobby, restaurant & hallways. Very unique. They have a huge museum here in Wellington - "Te Papa" means our place. It is supposed to be be of the best anywhere - right up my alley! It is free to everyone & is open every single day even Christmas. I spent most of the day here while the guys golfed. The weather has been fantastic until today. It is cloudy & very windy, not great for golf. We all really liked New Zealand - more than Australia. It kind of felt more like home.

Mar 30, 2013 - Boat Trip to Start of Queen Charlotte Track/Day 1

Today we left Nelson bright and early to get a 2 hour bus journey to Picton, it was a interesting trip because the whole journey was through Marlborough which has lots of vineyard. We got to Picton and it seemed to be a nice seaside town which lots of fish and chips shop (All good!), to do the Queen Charlotte Track to have to get a boat trip to the start which means to have to get a boat down the Marlborough Sounds. The only boat we could get was at 130pm which was the mail boat, which dropped peoples post/shopping who lived on the...

Mar 29, 2013 - Travelling from Franz Josef to Nelson

Today we got a 10 hour bus trip from Franz Josef to Nelson, it was a long day and the bus ride wasn't as enjoyable as the Queenstown to Franz Josef one but we did get the see the "Pancake Rocks" with was good, even though we didnt see the full works! And tomorrow we are off to Picton to start the Queen Charlotte Walk

Mar 28, 2013 - Wine Country, Art Deco & More Golf

Day 7 & on to the Hawkes Bay area which is wine & fruit country. On our first evening we enjoyed a delicious & scenic progressive dinner which included transportation and guide. Next day while the guys golfed at Cape Kidnappers, I took a walking tour and learned all about Art Deco. Napier was destroyed by an 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt within 2 years in the Art Deco style that was all the rage at the time. They say Napier has the most complete and significant group of Art Deco buildings in the world and all within a fairly...