New Zealand

So no lotto win for me and I completed my flight down to Auckland via an eventful night on the floor at Sydney airport. I rushed to check in as soon as they opened at 04:00 only to be told that they had no record of my booking. They cannot fool me however as I had the evidence in my hand so Quantas had to concede. Bit of a scary moment though. Flying into Auckland airport over the tiny islands that surround the north east coast the views were glorious and a great fore taste of things to come. After a couple of days exploring Auckland, so called city of sails as it has one sailing boat to every 5 people, I had signed up to a Flying kiwi tour of both islands and so duly joined that in Auckland. Having been on the tour now for 6 days I feel my feet have barely touched the ground and I’ve been busy every moment. Highlights so far include walking the Tongairio crossing, a high alpine trek, considered to be one of the best day walks in the world. It was extremely beautiful but I have to say that I have had just as good walks in our Lake district, I’ve cycled up and down mountains, ran alongside waterfalls, taken forest walks and sat in thermal pools. We visited the oldest Kauri tree in New Zealand. It led to a bit of an error on my part when I looked at the wrong tree for five minutes thinking I’d been scammed whilst everyone else stared at the correct tree in wonder.

Bay of islands

I eventually found the largest tree!

Thermal activity in Rotorua

Lake side camping

Huka falls

Emerald lake Tongariro

Group of valiant trekkers

The north island of New Zealand is uncannily similar to Britain and at every view point there is something that reminds you of the lakes, Yorkshire dales or Snowdonia. It is a stunningly beautiful place with natural wonders in abundance. Every beach is fantastic, there are geysers, hot pools galore, all very lord of the Rings and today we drove past Mt Doom.  As I haven't seen the film I was a bit bemused but everyone else was very excited. Everyone tells me the south island is even better so I’m looking forward to tomorrow when we make the ferry crossing from Wellington over to Picton.