We landed in Christchurch on 1st December and picked up our Motorhome. We headed around the south Island clockwise (ish) over three weeks.

Christchurch is a pleasant town - the biggest in the South Island apparently. I'd say that Dunedin has a bigger centre, but Christchurch may have bigger suburbs. Both are nice to shop in and have a lot ot interesting buildings - the kiwis have obviously kept more of their older buildings than the Aussies, despite being a 'younger' country - from the point of view of us westerners, or Pakeha as the Maoris call us!

Scenery is beautiful. Reminds us of various part of Europe, but all together in one place and without all the concrete jungles.

The south west corner of NZ is called Fjordland, for obvious reasons. Te Anau is a town, and lake, on the eastern edge. We stayed here a couple of nights. Very beautiful location.

Did a boat trip up the lake and into some caves on the other side where glow worms were discovered. It's more exciting than it sounds, honest, but not for the claustrophobic. We were put into small 'punts' in groups of 14, and taken through a cave complex on the water, in total darkness. The only way to appreciate the glow worms of course, but a little disconcerting when you can hear a waterfall just around the corner, but you haven't a hope in hell of seeing it. You just have to put your faith in the guide and hope he knows where he's going. He guides the boat by pulling it along on chains suspended from the roof of the caves.

Few roads venture into Fjordland, as it's so mountainous, but we took a trip to Milford Sound. Once called Milford Haven believe it or not, but then renamed wrongly as a sound. It is in fact a Fjord. But hey, it doesn't matter, it's a fantastic sight. We spent about 2 hours on one of the well known Red Boats, "Lady of the Sounds". Good trip, but extremely windy out on deck. Always is around these parts, we were told.

Adrenaline city. Not much to come here for actually, unless you're about to scare yourself half to death! Most of the shops are just booking offices for the next "fix".

None of us fancied a bungy, so we went for the Shotover Jet Boat, which Brett had requested as his Christmas treat. Fantastic experience. 50mph on 4 inches of water (in parts), straight at rock faces and bits of trees sticking out the water. These 'drivers' have the best job!

It did the trick though, the adrenaline stuck smiles to our faces for the rest of the day. And we can relive it at will whenever we want to ! Nice!

From Queenstown, we cut back north-east across country. Not much in the way of highlights to report, except for the never-ending scenery. You'll see some on a photo page soon if I ever find a good 'net cafe again.

Almost all the roads on the south island are superb for motorcyclists. I find myself sitting behind the wheel of a 3.5 tonne motorhome doing a maximum of about 60mph - about all you can do with soggy suspension and 2 kids in the back. But all the while dreaming of what it must be like on a bike, sweeping through all these curves. I'll be back!

Apart from a little bit called the "Canterbury Plains", which is flat, and the only boring bit on the island, the rest of it is mountainous and variously dry, lush, brown, green, snowy, and peppered with aquamarine rivers and lakes - a result of rock powder left by the retreating glaciers in the last ice-age.

It really is a joy just to drive through. I feel sorry for the kids - at their age, you don't appreciate it. Maybe they'll at least remember it and come back one day.

This was the reason we came back to the eastern side instead of going along the west coast to see the Franz Joseph glacier. We had hoped to go whale-watching. Unfortunately, while it's not a bad price for an individual, the tour is not good value for us as a family, so we gave it a miss.

The drive from Kaikoura to Blenheim, however was sublime...or would have been on a motorbike, grrrrrr.

If the Earth were only a few feet in diameter, floating a few feet above a field somewhere, people would come from everywhere to marvel at it. People would walk around it, marvelling at its big pools of water, its little pools and the water flowing between the pools. People would marvel at the bumps on it, and the holes in it, and they would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the water suspended in the gas. The people would marvel at all the creatures walking around the surface of the ball, and at the creatures in the water. The people would declare it sacred because it was the only one, and they would protect it so that it would not be hurt.

The ball would be the greatest wonder known, and people would come to pray to it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, to know beauty and to wonder how it could be. People would love it, and defend it with their lives because they would somehow know that their lives, their own roundness, could be nothing without it.

If only the Earth were a few feet in diameter...

We will be here from 21st Dec to 4th Jan. We intend to do very little, chill and go to the beach. Ha Ha Ha, the beach...on Christmas Day, Hee Hee Hee...Sorry !

If you'd like to send us a card, probably best to send it in the 1st week of December. Our address will be:- c/o Benwin Accomodation, PO Box 410, Paihia, Bay Of Islands, New Zealand. The owners can be contacted on E-mail: benwin@xtra.co.nz Phone: Evenings: +64 9 402 8652 Daytime: +64 9 402 8216

To see the cottage, checkout www.bay-of-islands.co.nz/accomm/benwin.html

This is the thermal activity centre of NZ. Loads of volcanic activity including the impressive Wai O Tapu with loads of bubbling mud pools and the Lady Knox Geyser.

You can dig down about a foot in the sand at the edge of the lake in Rotorua and get hot water! Frightening to think how close to the surface that kind of heat is. Weirdest place was a small thermal park just on the edge of the town centre, which we thought must have been there forever. In fact, it erupted just under TWO years ago, sending stuff up to 200m into the sky!

The North Island is crowded. By that I mean by New Zealand standards. 1 in 3 New Zealanders lives in Auckland, which is HUGE. I would say it's the only 'proper' city in New Zealand, in terms of size anyway. I'm sure people in Christchurch would disagree, but that's only a medium sized town by UK standards.

Anyhow, the roads in the North are of a better quality, but much more crowded and so less fun to drive on. I haven't had any "wish I was here on a motorbike" pangs since we got up here. It's still a beautiful place and Mt Ruapehu is an incredible sight - like a 'mini' Kilimanjaro rising out of the ground, with snow on top!

Motorhomes are the way to get around unless you're a backpacker, and maybe even if you are. There are lots of companies to choose from and all seem to provide a good standard of vehicle. We used Pacific Horizon, who are about 10% cheaper than the two big companies, Maui (definitely the most popular) and Britz.