After wading through many holiday brochures, travel books, and several bus and train timetables, I think I've managed to narrow down which places I'm going to visit.

North Island
Auckland - bright lights, big city
Rotorua - volcanic area
Palmerston North / Ashurst - visiting Alais
Wellington - NZ capital ( Read more... )

Obviously, before I can start travelling around New Zealand, I have to actually get there. A lot of the travel agents are advertising cheap flights, but the offers seem to be for April to June, which is a bit late for me. There may be last minute deals nearer the time, but if I want to make the most of the leave I have available, I need to get ( Read more... )

A Selection of New Zealand Travel Passes
Best Of New Zealand Pass This works on a points basis - you buy a pass for a certain number of points and then these are redeemed each time you travel. The pass is valid on trains, coaches and the interisland ferries. There's also a slightly different pass that allows one internal flight, but it's on a ( Read more... )

The main reason that I'm going to New Zealand is that one of my friends is marrying his Kiwi fiancee over there at the start of March 2003. To be honest I've always wanted to visit New Zealand, ever since a primary school trip to the Commonwealth Institute in London when I was about 8 or 9, and this was reinforced by seeing all that lovely scenery ( Read more... )

This is going to come as a bit of a surprise to some people. I have to admit to being a bit iffy about livejournals, or at least the way a lot of people seem to use them, so the aim is to make this one slightly different. You're not going to find my deepest personal thoughts here - if I want you to know about them, I'll tell you in person, on the ( Read more... )