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The end of our NZ sojourn

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: "When taking a holiday ourselves, we usually schedule around a week at the beginning when we don't have to talk to anybody," says Dave, who runs Misty Peaks B&B with his wife Lee. Based at Fox Glacier, a main town on the west coast of the South Island, I could see why he feels the urge to become reclusive. During summer, the guest dining area and lounge was kept pretty busy. And as skiing is available in winter, the only quiet times are a few weeks in spring and autumn.

Water, water everywhere

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: Getting out of Welcome Flat isn’t easy – it’s a seven-hour walk or rescue helicopter, so before setting off on our tramp (as they call walks out here), we registered our intentions with the Department of Conservation (DoC) office at Fox Glacier. The DoC woman agreed that if we hadn’t contacted them again after four days, they’d send out a search party.

A sobering Maori tale

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: "As there's booze around, I won't be telling you any of the deeper stories about my family history," says Hemi Te Raku, a Maori storyteller and owner of Awatuna Homestead, near Hokitika on the west coast of NZ's South Island. We were staying at the Homestead that night but Hemi, of the Nga Puhi tribe, doesn't make a special allowance for guests. Never mind that his Maori ancestry is watered down with Scottish and English blood, he always observes the protocol. When serious Maori business is discussed, alcohol is strictly forbidden.

Marlborough not very lite

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: It is with aching arms and legs that I write this from the Bay of Many Coves in the Marlborough Sounds. Not that I'm complaining of course. What better way to get some early morning exercise than to take a sea kayak out on the calm blue green waters of the Sounds. After a few cloudy days, it's blue skies and sunshine and after two and a half weeks of traveling, London and work seem very far away.

Up with kiwis, down with possums

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: Over dinner at Chow's restaurant in Wellington, conversation turned to flora and fauna. Hamish, a writer friend who lives near a conservation area high up in the city's hills, tells us that he regularly hears a kiwi's nocturnal call near his back garden. Lisa, another Wellingtonian who lives closer to the centre of town, is woken up every morning to the sound of a tui, a reasonably common New Zealand songbird.

I see a dolphin Pod

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: Today we went on an organised ‘swimming with dolphins’ trip – a four hour tour around the Bay of Islands. While there was no promise that we would end up swimming with dolphins, anticipation was high. All that could be guaranteed is that we were going out on a boat where dolphins are very often seen.

Steamy times in Rotorua

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: Robert and his wife Joyce from Surrey and Walter and his partner Kim from Singapore were our companions over dinner at Peppers on the Point, an up market lodge in Rotorua, New Zealand’s best known centre of geothermal activity.
In a lodge, which is a step between a boutique hotel and a grand country house, it is customary that guests dine together. Our evening was turning out to be a formal affair with the tone set by the genteel general manager, David. Although a Kiwi, his mannerisms are at times more like those of a British butler.

Spaceships, beer and 'fire baths'

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: Free dung for everyone. Raise the school leaving age to 65. Limit the right to vote to people under the age of 18. Link the North and South Islands by bulldozing the Southern Alps into the Cook Strait. These are just a few of the absurd and impractical policies proposed by New Zealand’s McGillicuddy Serious Party.

Following my fiancé home

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: Arriving in New Zealand towards the end of a chilly British January, after around 24 hours in the air, winter turned into summer and night into day. And like the London I’d left behind, although also grey and overcast, Auckland was reassuringly enveloped by a dead summer heat. The exotic features of Pacific Islanders and Maori among the crowds at the airport confirmed I was a long way from home. For Adam, my fiancé, who grew up in this country, it was of course all very familiar.