On a stormy and windy winter day we said good bye to Mel and Shannon and Wellington and flew up north again, back to Auckland for our last few days in beautiful Aotearoa. We quickly picked up our rental car and headed straight west, out of town, to make the most of the last few […]

New Zealand just keeps on delivering and being amazing! After a dark, stormy day of non-stop rain we left the Milford Sound/Te Anau area and headed over the hills towards Wanaka. Undulating snow capped mountain peaks flank the wide expanse of the Lake Wanaka valley and the ski season is just about to start here. Here […]

Heaven is a place on earth …and it’s name is Milford Sound! I’ve had the fortune to have seen a lot of amazing places but there aren’t many that can compete with Milford Sound in terms or raw beauty, serenity and sheer remoteness. We’re in Fjordlands National Park, all the way at the bottom of […]

Time for a road trip… Instead of flying, taking buses, hiring taxis and sorting out other means of transport we’ve opted to discover New Zealand on our own. I managed to find a very very cheap car rental deal and so far we’ve covered roughly 1800km and already driven from Auckland (top of the North […]

Just before nightfall we finally made it to the campground at the entrance of Abel Tasman National Park. It had been a beautiful day, not a cloud in sight, and as nice as that is during the day, at night that spells frosty temperatures! Fortunately, the campsite had a nice little kitchen plus lodge with […]

Another blue sky greeted us this morning and we got up in a hurry to get the car packed on time. Mel wanted to take us to her favorite coffee joint on the way to the ferry and treat me to a New Zealand coffee specialty, a “Flat White”. We met her teaching partner for […]

The amazing lime stone monoliths that sprout up all around the Andaman Sea, especially here, have turned Railay Beach into a climbing mecca. There are over 1000 bolted sport climbing routes just in this area, all within walking distance or reachable by boat and the place is a really popular winter climbing spot. No surprise really, there […]