More Photos…
Don’t forget… more of our photos can be found here… https://goo.gl/photos/SURQRoPXnr4vnR4S8 read more
Back to Wellington
Paul here… So after the ANZAC day service we set out on our last road trip – down to Wellington, about a 4 hour drive. As usual the New Zealand scenery was stunning. At Foxton it became very flat and … read more
ANZAC Day service: April 25th
Anne here… Many New Zealanders go to an ANZAC day celebration at dawn but after over three weeks of fairly continuous touring, we could only manage the 11am service. Plus we had to pack up and leave the ski holiday … read more
Not one, but three volcanoes
Anne here… Wow my first “active” volcanos, with smoke coming out of a fumerole on Mt. Tongariro just to remind everyone that they aren’t dormant yet. The views were genuinely amazing and stunning. On Mt. Ruapehu there was also a … read more
Huka Falls Hot Prawn Fishing
Anne here… Not a joke I promise. Our day at the Huka Falls Hot Prawn Fishing Farm started with an excellent guided tour and advice on how best to catch prawns. This farm is the only Hot Prawn Farm in … read more
A very busy day around Taupo
Anne here… Three of today’s four activities, Paul and I had done on our last visit. But we had loved them so much last time that we were happy to repeat them. For me, the power of thousands of litres … read more
The Goldfields Railway
Anne here… Friday today. Today was a day of travelling from the Coromandel to Taupo. During our road trips we have seen some interesting Kiwiana: including a ginormous L&P bottle and a giant sheepdog in Tirau. We have seen loads … read more
The Coromandel Peninsula
Anne here… Three years ago, it was a rushed visit to the Coromandel. This time we had a lot more time to explore a bit more and really appreciate its beauty. We rented a house in Hahei with the most … read more
A Second Family Reunion
Anne here… After a lovely day on the beach with Chris, Belinda, Amelia and Ben, we then had a second really special reunion with Kate, Max, Zac and Ross. It was quite emotional to see them again. We are so … read more
“Holiday by the Beach” house – Raglan
Anne here… For the first two weeks, Paul and I were very much in “touring holiday” mode. Today was all about moving to “family beach holiday” mode! The sun shone and shone and sparkled on the water. Our rented beach … read more
Meeting our NZ family again and Waitomo Caves
Anne here… What a very, very special couple of days. Family and more family… the family links to some were technically closer than others. But without exception just the loveliest, friendliest most welcoming people. Firstly we met up with Chris, … read more
Busy in Raglan
Paul here… Apologies for the lack of posts. We’re in Raglan with our New Zealand cousins and its been pretty hectic… canoeing, walking on the beach, meals out and catching up after 3 years. Heading off to to the Coromandel … read more
We actually saw a Kiwi
Anne here… Seeing a Kiwi is not an easy task. The kiwi bird is nocturnal and fairly rare in the wild. But yes, we cheated by going to the Kiwi House and Native Bird Park in Otorohanga. But realistically that … read more
Hamilton Gardens
Anne here… As I said in an earlier Blog post, Hamilton Gardens was a real highlight for me especially. Here are some of our favourite pics: read more
Cambridge and Hamilton
Anne here… Leaving Rotorua and, based on good advice, we called into Punnets cafe on the outskirts of Cambridge for a local favourite: berries whisked into vanilla ice-cream… mmm… delish! Cambridge is wealthy and horsey; lots of stud farms; large … read more
A day in Rotorua
Anne here… After a day cwtched up in a pleasant motel room (with its own hot tub) avoiding the rain from Cyclone Cook, it was good to see blue skies first thing. So a good walk through the Redwood trees … read more
Ex Cyclone Cook
Just to let anyone know who is concerned about us we are tucked up safe and sound in Rotorua. We’re in a nice motel just waiting for the storm to pass by. read more
A Visit to the Shire
Paul here… We visited Hobbiton (the Shire in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films) almost exactly 3 years ago. That time it poured with rain, really poured. So we decided this time that if the weather was fine … read more
Piha Beach and Karekare Falls
Anne here… We’ve had a great day on the beach… And what a beach! Huge rolling waves, clear blue water, golden/black sand – (the sand is volcanic hence black!) and perfect weather. A lovely day. A couple of notes of … read more
Kauri Forest
Paul here… We left the Bay of Islands and headed to the west coast of Northland. The roads were very quiet, and the area seemed to be less prosperous. We saw the amazing sand dunes across from Omapere. They were … read more
The Bay of Islands by boat
Anne here… We spent the afternoon on a very powerful catamaran, with about 100 other people, exploring the Bay of Islands properly. And yes, within 5 minutes we came across a family pod of about 25 bottlenose dolphins, including a … read more
Selected Photos from our 2017 trip
Quite a few of you like our photos. You can find a much larger selection of our trip photos on Google Photos. I used to use Flickr for this but gave up – Flickr is too hard to manage on … read more
Russell – romantic Russell or Hell Hole of the past?
Actually neither really although it has been called both in the past. Just a lovely little settlement across the Bay from Paihia with an unexpectedly important place in NZ history. The current population of 816 belies its history as the … read more
Waitangi Treaty Grounds
Anne here… Really, really interesting history lesson in an idyllic location. We were really fortunate with the weather as well – blue skies, warm sunshine – we needed both sunglasses and suncream. But back to the history… The Maori guide … read more
New Zealand Waterfalls
Paul here. During our last tour of New Zealand we hardly saw any waterfalls apart from the ones in Milford Sound. We sure are making up for it this trip. So far we’ve seen three really impressive ones – Whangarai … read more
One of life’s golden moments: sunrise over the Bay of Islands
Anne here . . . So I was awake at 5.30am (touch of jet lag?). But watching the sunrise; listening to the early morning birds (Tui?); and having the background sound of waves gently breaking on the beach from the … read more
Bay of Islands
Anne here again… Wednesday today. And we have dodged heavy rain showers all day. But the scenery on State Highway One through Northland was absolutely spectacular. Far more hills and scoria cones (we think) – whatever a scoria cone is … read more
Rain Delayed Play
Anne here… Okay, so our holiday got slightly put on hold for a day and a half. But there was also widespread flooding and general chaos so our thoughts are with the local inhabitants who were affected more than us. … read more
The rain came, and it was torrential
Anne here… Now it is raining … torrential rain in massive showers! It isn’t a surprise. We missed cyclone Diane that caused so much havoc in Australia. But caught the heavy bands of rain that followed the cyclone. Home from … read more
Let the holiday begin: In Auckland
Anne here. So exciting to see a bit of Auckland again. We keep saying to each other “do you remember this from last time?” Although in truth we will only see a very small part of Auckland again. Now bear … read more
Just arrived
Anne here… YIKES AGAIN. We really are here again. What a privilege and a pleasure, on so many levels, to be back in New Zealand. read more
On our way 2017
Anne here… YIKES there is no getting away from it. It is a very, very long journey from the UK to New Zealand. And I genuinely can’t decide whether it is better to come more or less straight through as … read more
Off to NZ again in a week
So 3 years ago I posted some nice Welsh daffodils in our sunny spring garden and here we are again. A week to go before Anne and I jet off to New Zealand for a month. We’re only doing North … read more
Arrived Home to Wales via a Dragon
Well, after a long flight from LA to London Heathrow we arrived home on Saturday. We flew on AirNZ’s Smaug liveried 777-300 which is a great plane. Given that we’ve travelled on 6 different planes over the past few weeks … read more
Heading back home and thank yous
Anne here . . . Friday 2nd May So it’s time to go home. We have had the most incredible five weeks, genuinely the trip of a lifetime. And as we are in Los Angeles, I am going to take … read more
Santa Monica
Los Angeles / Santa Monica Anne here . . . Wednesday 30th April (again) to Friday 2nd May We had the very surreal experience of repeating Wednesday 30th April by crossing the International Dateline just by Fiji. The Fiji Times … read more
More New Posts Below
If you’re just following our travels on this blog (not on Facebook) then it’s worth scrolling down for some new posts that we’ve recently added to fill in some of the gaps that we missed. They are in date order … read more
Fiji
Sunday 27th to Wednesday 30th April. Anne here . . . We’ve had two very, very, very different experiences of Fiji. For our first two days, we had fantastic hospitality from Paul’s university friend Mike who has lived in Suva … read more
Arrived in Santa Monica
Just a quick post to say that we’ve arrived in Santa Monica. Glorious here. 28C and sunny. The beach looks great. Arrived from Fiji via a painful long-haul. We have a few posts queued up ready so will post them … read more
Back to Auckland
Saturday 26th April 2014 When we arrived in Auckland many moons ago, all we really saw was the airport hotel. Last night we had a room (in the Quality Hotel, Parnell, Auckland) with a really spectacular view of Auckland by … read more
Coromandel
Friday 25th April, ANZAC Day. Anne here. Another catch up post from last week… We actually drove up the West side of the Coromandel peninsula yesterday afternoon after leaving Hobbiton and stayed in Coromandel Town last night. The weather improved … read more
Hobbiton
Thursday 24th April. Anne here, a catch up post for last week . . . You are quite right, we couldn’t leave New Zealand without visiting Hobbiton, near Matamata. Even though it was pouring with rain, absolutely pouring, it was … read more
Whakarewarewa – A living Maori village
Anne here . . . Wednesday 23rd April Kia ora. I felt a bit unsure about going to a Maori cultural show in case it was a bit patronising but the Whakarewarewa Maori Living Village in Rotorua is a fantastic … read more
Rotorua
Anne here . . . Tuesday 22nd April. We started the morning with a last look at Lake Taupo, because I liked it so much. Then we spent the rest of the morning in the Wairakei park area, just North … read more
Reached Rotorua
Paul here… Lack of free time and poor WiFi access means that we’re miles behind with our posts. Sorry about that 🙂 We’ve just reached Rotorua after spending a great few days with our relatives in Havelock North. Havelock North … read more
Taupo
Easter Monday – 21st April Anne here . . . So we are back on the tourist trail again. In fact we are on the “Thermal Explorer Highway” from Napier to Taupo. Fantastic weather which is lucky as the scenery … read more
Kiwiana
Anne here . . . We had come across the concept of Kiwiana (iconic New Zealand items) before, but Chris and Belinda decided that we needed as many examples as possible to enhance our New Zealand experience. So they found … read more
Hawkes Bay
Friday 18th April to Sunday 20th April – the Easter weekend Anne here . . . Sorry we were so busy having a fantastic time with our relatives in the Hawkes Bay Area that we didn’t have time to blog. … read more
Travel to Havelock North
Thursday 17th April Anne here . . . Just before we left Wellington, I discovered feijoas . . . I had never heard of them before. In case you are wondering, they are very common fruits for New Zealand. They … read more
Our last full day in Wellington
Anne here . . . Te Papa museum, The national museum of New Zealand. Everyone was quite right: Te Papa is a fascinating insight into the life, history, culture and wildlife of New Zealand. But I have found all the … read more
Quick Update
Paul here… Just a quick update. We’re still in Wellington and having a great time exploring the city and surrounding area. We’ve spent a fair bit of time with cousins Chris and Belinda who have looked after us really well. … read more
New Zealand Parliament
Tuesday 15th April Anne here … Yesterday we had a much needed trip to the laundrette! Yeh clean clothes again. Just in time for me to be reasonably tidily dressed to visit colleagues in the Office of the clerk of … read more
Birds of New Zealand
Anne here . . . Lots of things in New Zealand feel incredibly familiar and yet there are enough differences to remind you that you are definitely on the other side of the world, for example wooden houses. But also … read more
Meeting our distant cousins
Anne here . . . Saturday 12th April. Once again a completely different day. We met up with distant cousins, Chris, Belinda, Amelia and Ben. We had the best welcome ever, even though we had not met before. We all … read more
Arrival in Wellington
Anne here . . . The end of our first two weeks and our time in South Island. It does feel a bit of a watershed moment. But we have arrived safely in the North Island. We travelled by Bluebridge … read more
Ohau Seal Colony
Anne here… Well I nominated yesterday as probably my best day, of many truly awesome and fantastic days. BUT today may have been fractionally better! See what you think… The road North of Kaikoura has absolutely fantastic views both inland … read more
Whale Watching in Kaikoura
Anne here… Today probably gets my vote for the best day so far… And it has stiff competition for that title. It also had the potential to be really naff but it definitely wasn’t. The drive from Christchurch was amazing. … read more
Day two in Christchurch
Anne here. Altogether a much better day, although the weather was only marginally better. Canterbury Museum in Christchurch – wow what a fab museum. Really interesting, all sorts of exhibits – geology, earthquakes, Maori culture, Antarctic exploration, NZ animals and … read more
Two days in Christchurch
Anne here. Well a few changes . . . For starters, it’s been very wet with steady rain for two days; the drive from Mount Cook was longer than I expected and we definitely went from mountains and lakes to … read more
Mount Cook
Mount Cook National Park – Sunday 6th April Anne here . . . We saw a lot less of “Mount Cook” itself than we were expecting. It was always “just round the next corner”. But the neighbouring mountains more than … read more
New Posts
Paul here … We’ve just arrived in Mount Cook Village and have a great net connection 🙂 So scroll down for 3 more posts that we’ve saved from the past few days. Mount Cook village is pretty special, an amazing … read more
Arrowtown to Wanaka
Anne here … Arrowtown – touristy, an American style Wild West gold mining town. But great fun and very picturesque. And wet, it’s raining. Fab, fab, fab breakfast in the hotel with roaring log fires, we could smell the woodsmoke … read more
Miles Behind
Sorry we’re miles behind with the posts. Lack of free time, us being away from the Internet for the last 2 days and now a dodgy net connection in Queenstown has made it all difficult. We’re trying to keep a … read more
Milford Sound, Dolphins, Seals and Bees
Anne here … We haven’t had decent internet access for three days and there is so much to tell you about. From Te Anau we travelled onto Milford Sound. There are plenty of Welsh place names here in case we … read more
Photos 2
Hopefully our photo highlights are publicly available here – https://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-south-wales with the most recent first. read more
Te Anau
Anne here catching up with the last few days … Weds 2nd April I’ve loved Queenstown and am not really ready to leave this breathtaking scenery. Although I am slightly fed up of the comment “Why you haven’t done a … read more
Photos
Anne here. We are having a few technical problems posting photos to the blog. Paul is on the case. But send me a Facebook friends request if you would like to see more photos in the meantime. P. S. Hannah … read more
Bob’s Peake
Anne here. Wow wow wow. Amazing stunning breathtaking awesome stupendously awesome. We got the gondola cable car up Bob’s Peake overlooking Queenstown and the lake and the Remarkable mountains. They genuinely are remarkable! The cider I drank sat on a … read more
Anne’s Associations
My first two long haul flights will be forever associated with a Sigingstone book club book: the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It’s a very gentle collection of letters between a journalist and the Guernsey literary society but … read more
Anne’s Hong Kong
Anne here. Some thoughts about Hong Kong: The skyline really is iconic Tropical storms are very dramatic, lashing rain, and bolts of thunder and lightning Hong Kong’s skyscrapers can look rather grey in the fog I learnt a lot about … read more
Jet-lagged
We’re a couple of days behind with our blog mainly due to being off the net for a few days and the effects of jet-leg. We’re much better today but our first day in Auckland totally knocked us for six, … read more
Day in Hong Kong
After arriving late in Hong Kong we didn’t get to see as much on our arrival day as we had hoped. After a fitful night trying to adapt to the new timezone we checked out and set off for our … read more
Flight to Hong Kong
Anne here. The flight didn’t start brilliantly. A 3 hour delay because of a lightening strike on our plane’s previous journey. The captain kept saying “the damage is only very minor”. Good job neither Paul nor I are nervous fliers. … read more
Cars, Trains, Buses and Planes
Well we’ve made it to Heathrow. A really smooth journey from Cowbridge. Our neighbour John gave us a lift to Cardiff rail station. It was a cold start. As usual the station was cold and windswept. But first class on … read more
Last Day in Wales
Well our last day in Wales has been a little dramatic. Anne’s mum felt unwell and the ambulance was called. However a visit to the hospital was avoided and the doctor called after a check-up by the paramedics. Luckily she … read more
Booking our NZ flights
Wouldn’t it be great to travel around for free like Gandalf on the back of a Hobbit Great Eagle? Unfortunately the rest of us have to suffer the delights of long haul so the first activity for our journey to … read more
New Zealand here we come!
So just under 8 weeks from now we’re off on the trip of a lifetime! We’re taking over 5 weeks off work in total to travel around the world and will spend 4 weeks touring New Zealand. It’s something that … read more