A slow start to the day, we rose, washed, ate our muesli, finished off our fruit and packed our bags for the final time in New Zealand. We then sat in the hostel lobby for a while, reading. Laura took a look through the jailhouse history book, thrilled to learn that there was never any running water in the cells – slop buckets all the way!

We decided to drive into down and take a walk around the botanic gardens where we played the Poison Plants Murder Mystery quiz that happened to be on – essentially a walk around a small garden with audio clips of crime descriptions, locations, plant symptoms etc. requiring that you put the peices together and solve the case! It was pretty fun and a nice stress free way to spend the hour before our flight.

We were a little nervous on checking in the car, as I had noticed a small crack (rather than the plentiful chips) on the windsheild after picking the car up. It was almost certainly there when we picked up the car, but went unnoticed – the lesson is to check the windscreen of any hire car from the inside before you sign the paperwork. Thankfully it was not picked up, and although the return took a long time, we were not in such a great hurry as we had been in Auckland.

We checked in, paid our NZD$25 departure tax (these countries are so cheeky!) and I managed to eat a Boost in a record time as food could not be transported between countries. We were left with NZD$24 to blow on lunch – we spent it easily, but every single item from the cafe in Departures was lame, lame, lame.

We were then happily sat on the plane when an official boarded and tapped me on the shoulder, requesting our tickets. Unfortunately the check in staff had taken the flight for our Queenstown to Christchurch flight that we had told them we were not going to take. It was all sorted, but the need for paper tickets really did complicate a lot of the interactions at airports. Because Silk Air (the airline that will take us to Cambodia) requires paper tickets, every single other flight on our RTW route also had to be paper. Needlessly complicated.

The flight arrived in Sydney on time to a dry, but cloudy day. We could help but comment on the weird clouds over the city, not knowing that Sydney had been experiencing thunderstorms over the past week. We proceeded to the Mercantile Hotel in The Rocks area of Sydney and had to wait for a fellow to turn up to check up in. A surly and shifty fellow, he didn’t make eye contact and just handed us the keys. After such a welcome, we were relieved to find that the room itself was spacious, charming and clean, overlooking the character filled streets of The Rocks.

I wasn’t in the best of moods and the rapidly worsening weather didn’t help – but in spite of that Laura dragged me out onto the streets of Sydney where we traipsed to Darling Harbour through the now pouring rain, as lightening lit up the sky. Not the Sydney I had expected and my temperament was as foul as the weather.

We wandered around the harbour which was lined with bars and restaurants, all very glossy but lacking any character and (tonight at least) lacking any customers. Laura insisted we make the most of it and steered me into the aquarium which was open until midnight.

Thankfully, my mood was immediately lifted by a cheeky platypus – so cute! The place was completely deserted, so we were able to see everything in peace – dozens of fish we had snorkeled with in the Cooks, plus seal, sharks, turtles, penguins, stingrays, cod trout and shark rays. Brilliant spot and recommend visiting it late at night to avoid the crowds.

On the walk home we stopped into a Seven Eleven for dinner – a slurpee, chocolate milk, bananas and an apple. On getting back to the hotel we saw dozens of huge fruit bats swinging through the trees above us. They were massive! I then fell asleep while Laura watched ‘Forensic Investigations’, but woke at about 11pm when the music started in the pub downstairs. Thankfully it had stopped by midnight and we both slept well.

Uninspired by Christchurch, we decided to head out to Akaroa on the the Banks Peninsula, taking in Lyttleton on the way. So after a healthy fruit and muesli breakfast we headed through the road tunnel to the south and into Lyttleton. The guidebook had described it as a lovely port, but instead we found a place piled high with shipping containers, cranes and ships. The surrounding was nice, but unless you like industrial shipyards, stay clear.

On we drove, then, to Akaroa. It was a slow drive around insanely windy roads, but it really was worth it – a lovely town with a quaint harbour and some nice cafes along the shore line. We stopped at one for a delicious bowl of seafood chowder and a brocolli and blue cheese pie. The cafe was superb, but we wish we’d arrived earlier as we picked up the very last pie.

We then drove back to Christchurch via the beautiful hill top route. Fantastic views across the peninsula and over the city itself. Back in Christchurch we took some time to upload some photographs before having a game of pool. Unfortunately accussations of ‘cheating’ were made during my round of the second game – Laura’s retaliation being an embarrassing spray of water aimed for my trousers. I was forced to retreat quickly to the room were, catching he unawares, I managed to even the score with a proper soaking. ‘Tit for tat’? Me?

We then sat to dry out for a while before heading to the Chinese takeaway just next to the jailhouse. We got a huge and tasty portion of chicken and mushroom chow mein and sat in the jail hall eating it. A little reading followed and then to sleep.

Up at 7am for a muesli breakfast and packing, leaving the hostel at 8am for the drive over to Christchurch. The rain was back, and we were thankful that we got up the glacier at all! It was a dull drive through the rain all the way to Arthur’s Pass, a small collection of huts and houses in the centre of the south island. There we stopped at a coffee shop for a tasty lamb/rosemary/kumara pie and large but lame date scone. As we emerged from the other side of the pass, the clouds cleared and suddenly it was a perfect beautiful day.

We powered on to Christchurch and checked into the unique Jailhouse Accomodation hostel there – a former jail constructed in the 1860s and still in use until the late 1990’s. Our cell was simply furnished with bunk beds and a set of drawers and the communal kitchen and bathrooms were large and clean.

To the back of the hostel was a pool table with a balcony overlooking the rest of the prison and a movie room for relaxing. Laura had not had a great night’s sleep for a few days so decided to relax while I wandered into Christchurch town centre. The hostel is a little bit of a walk from the tourist sites, but I followed the river along and took a walk through the botanic gardens which were very pleasant. The town square is very pretty, but it is an odd town, lacking the charm I had expected.

We both then headed out for dinner at around 7pm, but nothing in the many city centre restaurants grabbed us (overpriced and uninspiring) so we went into a supermarket and loaded up with corn on the cob and fruit. Maybe we had had too many burgers? In the end, the corn filled us up, so we were glad we avoided a restaurant.

A bit of book reading and then to sleep.

The rain poured and poured through the night, but when we woke a 8am we peered outside to see bright sunshine. We asked the hostel porter to ring Glacier Guides who told us there was a 90% chance that the heli hike we had booked would run. We were so surprised that we had to rush to get dressed and sorted. We stopped in at a petrol station to grab a few survival snacks and drinks for the glacier before meeting up with the group and the Glacier Guides hut in town. I had just enough time to run back to the car for my sunglasses before the bus headed off to the helipad.

There we were given a saftey chat and provided with warm socks and heavy boots. Laura and I went in the second helicopter, a spectular flight up the glacier, soaring down over a huge turbulent water fall caused by the heavy over night rain. We landed on the ice and gingerly made our way to the rest of the group. The ice was completely slick, and the mere act of standing up was tricky – scary when carrying an expensive camera! The guide said that this was the slippiest he had seen it.

Thankfully we were then provided with crampons and a pole which made walking much easier and were then led up the glacier. The tour took in beautiful ice shelves, caves, deep holes (moulin bleu) and even some tiny ice worms that could be spied in the pools of water that littered the surface of the ice. We were constantly slowed up by an old man with a camera stopping to take photographs and videos at every turn. I know that he was just making the most of his own glacier experience… but come on, show a bit of consideration! I would hate to be the one who has to sit through his three hour video of every pool of water of the glacier…

We spent abotu 2 hours on the glacier before the helicopter returned to collect us and we were bussed back into town. We stopped in at the little shop to grab some muesli and chicken pasta for lunch and dusted them off in the hostel canteen. Not being used to this hiking lark, we then headed to our room where we crashed for 3 hours before surfacing again.

After showering and freshening up, we drove out to Lake Mathieson for an hour’s walk around the lake. There was a little bit of wind which stirred up the water, somewhat breaking the promise of Reflection Island, but it was still a beautiful warm summer evening for a walk.

Back in town we headed for the Crook Saloon (or similar named spot) where I had a big chunky venison burger, with Laura on the chicken burger. Both were really tasty and just what we needed. We tried the pavlova for dessert, but the meringue was not great.

We then headed to the hostel to write up our diary and watched a little TV (which was quite the novelty) – some UK docudrama about a woman being unfairly dismissed from work. No, it was quite good, actually! Not long after that we were roused by the fire alarm and had to get dressed and head outside, thankfully it was a false alarm and the rain had stopped.

We woke at 8am to find a damp and cloudy day waiting for us. Unfortunately this meant that the sky dive was cancelled for the morning and we were advised to phone again at 2:30pm. We packed up our things and had breakfast, deciding to phone and cancel the sky dive as we had a long drive to Fox Glacier ahead. We were then told that things were clearing up and that an 11am jump might be possible. So we took a walk by the lake side and a short drive around the tiny town before we were able to confirm that yes, the 11am jump was going to happen.

We still had a bit of time to kill before the jump, so popped into Puzzling World on the way to the airport. Home to a maze and various other puzzles and illusions, we stopped in the big atrium and played some wooden puzzles for a while until it was time to get to the parachute site.

There we were sat in front of a couple of safety DVDs and met a lovely chatty girl, Kate, who was visiting from Australia. We were all suited and strapped in before being paired with an instructor – mine was a cheery fellow from Southport near Liverpool.

We were then crammed into a tiny plane which immediately sped off and into the air – for some reason I was expecting more instruction, so was surprised to find myself sat in a tiny tin can plane with the door open.

As the plane rose to 12,000 feet the views were quite stunning – Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawie and dozens of pure blue rivers. Once at our target altitude our instructors hooked in the necessary straps and one by one we shuffled out the door. I was third, with Laura last out right behind me.

The freefall was literally breath taking and quite a rush – although nothing compared to the bungee! We performed a few spins each before the parachute opened and we drifted gently down. I had a quick go on the controls of the parachute, left a bit, right a bit and then felt quite queasy as my instructor took us into a tight spin. Laura managed to hit her instructor in the face on landing – putting her feet down early to avoid hitting another instructor on the ground (oblivous to the fact that this person was waiting to catch her parachute!).

We chatted a little more to Kate and as she was at a loose end we gave her a lift back to Puzzling World where we all walked around the hall of illusions. Laura was feeling a little queasy after her jump, and something in the amazing ’sloping room’ made her feel even more so, so we took a seat and had a wee drink. Feeling a bit better, we then had a quick wander around the maze. Far from a-maze-ing in our opinion! Ho ho.

After dropping Kate off in Wanaka we then began the long drive to Fox Glacier. We stopped to view the Blue Pools, a 20 minute walk through the woods. Unfortunately half way to the pools I realised that I didn’t have the car keys, so we decided to race the rest of the track to the Blue Pools. They were very underwhelming, ‘Brown pools’ being a more accurate name. Perhaps the weather had churned them up… We immediately raced back to the car to find the keys hanging in the boot – what a relief! And also, d’oh!

The drive took in some impressive scenery and we stopped a couple of times to take a look. First at a road bridge over a large churning waterfall charging over huge boulders, and then at a smaller, higher waterfall that was a short signposted walk from the road.

As we emerged onto the west coast, the weather worsened to the heaviest rain we had ever seen, the windscreen wipers barely able to cope with the torrent. Despite this we stopped at Knight’s Point for the legendary views – of course they were almost completely obscured, but the rain was so humourously heavy that we enjoyed the quick run to the viewpoint.

The road ran right up to the coastline – the lashing rain, the lack of cars, the wildly swaying trees and the huge crashing waves at see made for a miserable but quite impressive scene. It was a long and tiring drive, often crossing long single lane bridges with visibility almost nothing in the rain. It was a relief to finally pull into the small township of Fox Glacier, racing through the rain to the hostel.

The hostel manager warned us that the helicopter flights do not run during poor weather, so our hopes for the morning were very low. However, pleased to be warm and dry, we dashed quickly through the rain to the nearby restaurant, The Plateau. We were pretty ravenous, and I had a tasty chicken burger and some great chips. Laura went for some fantastic lamb served with ‘gourmet pototoes’. As delivered the potatoes were far from it, but Laura saved them with a bit of mashing, salt and butter. Delicious.

For dessert I had a sticky toffee style cake with icecream – very nice, and even sweeter for being left off the bill. Does that make us bad people?

We were shocked to find it was only 8:30pm when we got into bed – but I only managed to read a couple of pages of my book before falling fast asleep. Laura being Laura, she watched five minutes of a movie, Possession, and then was hooked until the end!

Another early start got us to the bungee booking centre for 8:45am. After weighing in (jumpers leap in descending weight order) we then took a seat for an long wait for the bus to depart – I grabbed a tea and coffee from the cafe across the road to perk us up a bit. At 9:30am we headed out on the bus, a lengthy drive that culminated in a winding treacherous road up a cliffside to remote Nevis Highwire bungee.

After being weighed (again) and strapped into harnesses, we were ferried out to the bungee gondola on a smaller hanging basket of a gondola. Being one of the heavier in the group (they were all thin, I swear!) I found myself jumping fifth, with little Laura leaping last in eighteenth position – she was so proud of herself! Inching out onto the ledge was sickening, I was strangely concerned that I would trip over the bungee chord and fall down the 134m… even though I was about to jump off.

The act of jumping was stomach churning and felt so… wrong! But the rush was phenomenal and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone. Unfortunately I was then unable to right myself by pulling the chord attached to my legs – meaning I was hauled in upside down like landing a big fish. I wasn’t the only one to suffer from this predicament – aside from the embarrassment, the only downside was red eyes from spending a few minutes upside down.

It was a long wait for Laura to jump, and after everybody else had gone without problem, the girl before her was the first to show any hesitation, which only made things worse for her. Eventually she was coaxed of the edge and seemed happy enough when she reappeared. Laura hopped out without hesistation, and being an experience bungee master (she jumped the same site a few years ago) she righted herself with ease and enjoyed the scenery on the way up (I had a better view of the riverbed at the bottom of the gorge though).

On returning to the bungee shack we were rewarded with certificates, t-shirts, juice and a hotdog while we watched the DVD which we ultimately decided to buy.

Nevis Highwire Bungee, New Zealand from Robert Young on Vimeo.

Nevis High Wire Bungee, New Zealand from Robert Young on Vimeo.

We were back in Queenstown for noon and headed to Dux De Lux for coffee, a couple of muffins and a half pint of delicious home brewed ginger beer (”Ginger Tom”). We then got the bus to the airport where we picked up a little Nissan Sunny from Jucy Car Rentals. The staff there were lovely and friendly – much more so than the folk in Auckland.

We then drove straight to Arrowtown for a quick walk through the 19th century Chinese settler village. It was not particularly interesting, our favourite bit was all the tasty plums growing on the trees around the village.

Next stop was the Gibbston Valley cheesery where we got a small, bland and overpriced cheeseboard and a similarly dinky wine tasting selection. We enjoyed sitting outside, but there must be better options in the area.

It was a short drive on to the AJ Hackett Kawarau Bridge bungee, home to the first commercial bungee in the world. We grabbed a few souvenirs for the Christmas tree (our own little tradition) and watched a few folk take the plunge – the twist there being the optional dunk in the water below. Personally I would go for the Nevis High Wire every time at almost four times the drop.

We then took the Cardrona pass over to Wanaka. The views were spectacular, but thanks to the inclement weather attempts to photograph it were rather disappointing. It was a windy road, but an easy drive to the Purple Cow hostel in central Wanaka.

We relaxed for a short time, leading Laura to crash out and fall fast asleep. I headed to the local supermarket for a few supplies – bread, honey and Vegemite (a thick Marmite). The hostel kitchen was superb – clean with plenty of available hobs. I made no use of it, preparing instead a round of toast. We then spent a short time on a slow, locked down web terminal before heading to bed, completely shattered.

I got up at 7am and phoned Air Fjordland about our scheduled flightseeing trip to Milford sound. Unfortunately the weather on the other side of the mountains was bad and the flight was cancelled, at least until the afternoon.

We were quite tired so went back to bed until about 10am, when we headed down to the Vudu Cafe in town. Laura had two delicious and huge slices of banana bread with marscaponi and a fig compote and I went for the homemade muesli with natural yoghurt and stewed apricot jam. I’d never considered eating muesli in a restaurant, but it was amazing! The ‘flat whites’ (thats a latte in down under speak) were also superb – as with everywhere else we visited!

We walked down to the William’s cottage, a pretty little remnant of the early settlers of 1864. A quirky, kitschy arts shop and cafe now occupies the tiny space, and it makes for a pleasant look around.

A pastry and postcard writing in a bakery tided us over until 1pm when I phoned Air Fjordland to find the status of the flights. Sadly the afternoon trip was also cancelled, but we weren’t too disappointed – better to come back another time and see it properly than take the 4 hour bus trip there to see it covered in cloud.

We tried to switch the bungee planned for the following day, but the afternoon was fully booked, so instead we decided to give the Shotover Jet a spin at 2:30pm. We killed the interim hour back at the hostel relaxing and reading before returning to the booking office for the short bus ride to the Shotover river.

We were quickly loaded on the boat and blasted down the river at a frightening pace, just inches from the rocks on either side. We were sat in the back row and think that contributed to me getting absolutely soaked. The boat apparently operates like a big jet ski and works best in 3-6 inches of water – making the conditions perfect. After 20 minutes of 360 spins and swerving around the river, we returned to land to dry out and take some pictures.

At Laura’s insistence we then returned to the hostel and washed our sandals – I don’t know what she was complaining about! We then sat and read before heading down to an internet cafe for a couple of hours to upload photos.

We dined at Winnie Bagos, a popular spot for pizzas. We made the mistake of ordering a massive antipasto platter for starter – a sizable garlic pizza with dips, cheeses and meats. We were so stuff that we struggled to finish our main pizza course, so boxed it up and took it with us to the Otago Wine Experience for a few more tastings before home to bed.

We left the hostel when the office opened at 8am so that we could reclaim our key deposit, and swiftly drove on the airport – completely panicked that we would miss our 10am flight as we hit the morning rush hour traffic. We arrived at the car hire place at 9am and hurried through the return process – thankfully no mention was made of a small scrape to the bumper which seemed to have appeared…

We got speedy lift to the terminal and checked in without issue – leaving enough time to scarf down a McDonald’s egg McMuffin, hash brown and fruit toast between us. The flight was perfectly on time and the clear skies gave us beautiful views for much of the flight. The trolley service furnished us with crisps, tea, coffee and a sweetie. Pretty good, and we even landed early.

On arriving at Queenstown, we looked for the best option to get into town, but all we could see was taxis and expensive coaches – even the airport information recommended them. However, we persevered and walked to the bus stop a hundred meters down and were ferried to Queenstown quickly and for next to nothing.

The weather was gorgeous and Queenstown in a picture postcard location – perched on the edge of lake Wakatipu, hemmed in by mountains, and the peaks of The Remarkables range beyond. It was a fair hike up the hill to the Hippo Lodge but it can only do us good. I don’t know if I have seen a street as steep! It was worth it though, when the checkin girl thought my red camper van t-shirt was awesome.

After dropping our bags we immediately walked back down into town to the gondola that ran to the peak overlooking the town. After a short queue we hopped into a gondola and then were required to smile for a picture – by the time we got back down the pictures were printed with our gondola superimposed over the backdrop of Queenstown. Cheesy and, well, rubbish. Can’t believe they print them all out!

The views from the top were spectacular and had we a longer stay in the area we would have loved to have walked back down. Instead, we sat in a spot of shade at the summit and planned the afternoon…. Laundry! So straight back to the gondola and back up to the hostel for laundry and a wee nap.

Refreshed, we headed down into town and went to the Fishbone Cafe for dinner. Laura had the Tarahike fish with roast vegetables, which was a pleasant but not very exciting fish. The battered fish I had was great, but the chips a bit sub par – why do people find it so hard to cook chips!

Dessert was fantastic, a lovely cheesecake and a massive pavlova that Laura describes as “the best ever”. Impressive, and as Laura filled up, I stepped in to eat the rest of it – what a hero!

A pleasant stroll along the pier followed dinner – it is a lovely little spot with a lot of character. The evening sun was warm and we walked through the city gardens and sat and watched the sun set between the mountain ranges.

We then dropped into the Otago Wine Experience in town – an automated wine tasting lounge. Essentially around a hundred wines available for self service with a charge card – all offered in tasting portions or larger glasses. A fantastic system and we tasted 18 different wines for less that £20 – we tried a selection of Sauvingnon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Rose, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noirs, many other reds and dessert wines. We particularly liked the Wild Earth wine, must look that up when we get home!

After that, we walked home happy and took the washing off the line in the dark, joined by a cute young ginger cat who managed to get Laura covered in hair and mud.

Not a great night’s sleep – disturbed by some guffawing Dutch idiots in the hostel common area who kept strumming a guitar. In the end we had to get up and tell them to shut up.

Up bright and early at 7am to start the walk to Cathedral Cove. At the end of Hahei beach, the sign indicated this was a 70 minute walk, so straight back up to the car and whizzed around to the lookout point. The walk from there was a much more palatable 25 minutes each way – although we were frequently out of breath, pausing frequently to ‘admire the views’ while the local grandmothers power walked their way past us.

When we reached Cathedral Cove, I ran up and down the beach taking snaps while Laura sat down in the the cave for which the beach is named. Bumped into a fellow taking snaps of his back pack for some outdoor fashion magazine and he handed me his very nice camera with ultra wide lens to take a few pictures of him walking through the cave. Different.

Back to the hostel to check out and on the road again to Coromandel Town. We spotted an old fellow hitch-hiking and thought we’d do him a favour. Sadly when he got in, we quickly realised that the high visibility vest was not because he was headed to work in Coromandel, but rather because he was crazy and is probably usually found walking along the middle of the road.

The smell was not great either – thank goodness it was a hire car.

Fortunately we had decided to take the unsealed road to Coromandel and the old fellow was headed the other way. Despite his protestations that it was a terrible road and that we would be better off continuing up the east coast, we insisted and bade him good luck finding his next ride.

As it happens, he was right, the road was terrible! It was in the process of being sealed, but for the majority of the drive it was a rocky gravel track that wound seemingly forever across the peninsula. We were relieved when we emerged at the other side and Coromandel Town swung into view.

We headed to UMU cafe where I tucked into a massive breakfast (served with garlic bread…) while Laura had the best scrambled eggs on toast, ever. The coffee was also fantastic and we left refreshed and eager to get back to Auckland.

It was a long, windy and uneventful drive down the pebbly beaches of the west coast of the peninsula to Thames. We stopped there for a brief refresher at the Butterfly Sanctuary. Plenty to see, including some quails and other little birds – a nice stop but don’t go out of your way!

We then flew on to Auckland as we planned to reach the Villa Maria winery for the 3pm tour. We had no idea where it was, but Laura managed to save the day with some excellent navigation and we arrived with just minutes to spare (which were spent changing out of our scruffy beach wear and into something more befitting a wine tasting).

There was just us and a second couple on the free tour, which lasted about an hour. The guide was very interesting and took us through the plant; grape delivery, fermentation tanks, bottling plant… Did you know that fish bladders are used to remove the grape bits from wine? Wow! It is referred to as ‘isinglass’ so as not to put you off your drink. Vegetarians take note.

We then bought two sets of wine tastings for NZD$10 each, which was fantastic value for some gorgeous wines. We asked for the tasting menus to be shaken up a bit to avoid any overlapping and the tour guide/wine waiter was happy to accommodate. One of the best was a delicious noble riesling that cannot be exported to Europe due to it being too sweet! We would have loved to take a bottle with is but were sure it wouldn’t survive long in our backpacks.

It really is a great option if you are killing time before a flight from Auckland.

I only took a few sips of each as I still had to drive on to the Garden Lodge in the Parnell district of Auckland. We checked in and dropped our bags before taking a drive through the city centre for a quick look. It really was much like any city in UK – plenty of big shopping centres, but there are better ways to spend your time on the other side of the planet! Eventually we ended up at Mount Eden park, a dormant volcanic cone that looks over the city. With a car park at the top, it was perfect for a quick walk round the cone before sitting on the grass and watching the sun set over the Auckland suburbs.

We headed back to the hostel and walked to the main street in Parnell for some food. It is a lovely area with plenty of sophisticated eating options. We plumped for the Java Room recommended by Lonely Planet – it had a good looking menu and a nice outside seating area as the evening was nice and warm.

For starter we shared a lime/chilli/coconut marinaded raw snapper, which was not as nice as the similar dish in the Cook Islands, but nice nonetheless. I then had a tasty spicy curry with coconut rice and Laura had a Vietnamese salad. Unfortunately this did not contain the main ingredients listed on the menu – pawpaw and mint. We spoke to the waiter – apparently the chef had run out of both ingredients!

They took the course off the bill and offered us a replacement, but we were already comfortably full so finished off what we had and headed back to the hostel to pack for our flight in the morning, before heading to bed.

Up at 7:30am and to a local fruit shop to pick up a simple breakfast. We hit the road straight away and headed to the Orakei Korako thermal terraces. As it was still early we had the small ferry boat to ourselves and only spotted a few fellow visitors around the walkways. Apparently, the water levels in the terraces were very low this year and as such the famed colours were very subdued – probably not a recommended sight if time is short.

The next stop on the geothermal route was the Waitapu hotsprings near Rotorua. These are the springs that most people will associate with New Zealand, filled with colourful pools of yellow, green, orange and brown bubbling mud which Laura claimed smelled not unlike my feet. Lies! The famous Champagne Pool was particularly impressive. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed the long walk around the park – although it was very busy.

Hungry, we headed into Rotorua and stopped at Wellin’s Noodle Shop, as recommended by the Lonely Planet. The beef noodles and the noodle soup were as good as we had hoped, and afterwards we tramped next door for a couple of huge ice creams from Lady Jane’s Ice Cream Emporium. Two cones, five scoops in each, and all over us by the time we were finished.

Somehow still hungry, Laura could not resist the Lonely Planet’s praise of Maketu Pies, so we took a detour to the sea side town through dozens of kiwi plantations. Maybe we caught it on a bad day, but the pies were average, at best. But it was pleasant to sit on a quiet bench beside the sea with nowhere in particular be.

On our way up to Hahei, we pulled in to Hot Water beach. At the right tide, you can dig yourself your own personal hot spa on the beach, warmed to 60 degrees Celsius by the hot water from the thermal springs below… But, alas, it was not the right tide. We continued on to Tatahi Lodge and took a walk down to the beach – to confirm our route to Cathedral Cove in the morning – and then spent a while uploading photos and updating our blog before bed.