We got off the ferry onto the north island at Wellington, the capital city. We drove around a bit and were going to drive to a view point, but the road was closed so in the end we decided not to bother!

We went north up the coast then veered inland to stay just south of Tongariro National Park. The following day we went for a walk in the national park - unfortunately it was drizzling with rain a little and the visibility was poor so we couldn’t really do the walk we wanted to and we couldn’t see the massive mountains around us either! However the walk we did was quite good but it did just remind us of the Yorkshire countryside without being able to see the mountains! In general the scenery here isn’t as spectacular as the south island.

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We headed north from Lake Ianthe then across to the east coast via Arthur’s Pass. We stopped off there to do a short walk to the Devil’s Punchbowl waterfall.

On the east coast we headed towards Hanmer Springs, stopping overnight just south of it. The next day we went into the town and spent a couple of hours enjoying the hot geothermal waters. The pools ranged in temperature, from 38 degrees (hot) to 41 degrees (too hot!). The hotter ones were also unfiltered so smelt a bit sulphurous.

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We headed up to Queenstown for our Nevis Arc Swing, checked in for that and then got the bus to the canyon site. They also do the Nevis Bungy there, but we decided to go for the swing as it was cheaper for us both! It’s also the highest swing in the world, and you freefall 70m before swinging across the canyon.

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After we left Queenstown we headed down to Te Anau which is the base in Fiordland for visiting the Fjords in the area (which they call “Sounds”). We went for a walk around Lake Te Anau then stayed in a proper campsite there, charged things up and had a shower (luxury!).

The following day we drove to Manipouri to catch our Doubtful Sound cruise. Doubtful is a little inaccessible - you take a boat across Lake Manipouri, which is in itself pretty impressive and takes about 45 minutes. That docks at the West Arm of the lake, where the hydroelectric power station is. From there a coach takes you over the Wilmot Pass road which was constructed for the power station and goes to Deep Cove on the sound.

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We arrived in Christchurch on Sunday 2 May - it was nice to not have to adjust to a time difference! We didn’t have anywhere booked for that night, but there’s a freephone in the airport you can use and some very helpful tourist info people.

We got a free shuttle to the Kiwi Basecamp hostel that someone had recommended to us, it was nice, just like a big house converted into a hostel! We dumped our bags and went for a wander around the town which was only a short walk away.

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