In case anyone missed this golden nugget buried in Squiffy’s last post on how we spent our Valentine’s evening at Dunedin’s Otago Museum, I have a very special announcement to make: As adjudicated by a high-ranking Otago Museum official, I am the 2009 winner of the “Most Romantic” award. There are a few people that […]

Fortunate to arrive in the historic town of Dunedin on their annual fete day, we were met with live music, market stalls and revellers galore. The sun was out so we mooched around enjoying the atmosphere, before heading to tourist information to find out if there was anything special we should see. As well as […]

I’m not entirely sure whether we had a particular reason to stop at Oamaru, an eastern coastal town here in New Zealand, but I’m glad we did. Squiffy insisted that we walk the historical building trail, from which the map would help us identify some of the oldest and best built buildings in New Zealand. […]

I now know why this country is called New Zealand: for me, taking a short walk–or ‘tramp’ as it’s called here–near the base of Mt. Cook has indeed given me a “New Zeal”. Corny, I know, but I really enjoyed my walk so go easy on me! Squiffy ducks out at times like this and […]

I shan’t bother to write about our stay in Methvan last night; whilst the local hot-air balloon company proclaims that it’s the best site in New Zealand from which to float skywards, we can’t yet confirm or deny this rumour as the weather on the morning of our potential flight was atrocious. So bad was […]

It appears that the sharp-snapper at Black Cat cruises managed to get a photo of us swimming with the dolphins. It’s just a shame that we were looking the wrong way! And for good measure, here’s a quick video of one of the dolphins swimming just inches past Squiffy — blink and you’ll miss it […]

I’m sat at a bar on the waterfront in the quaint Gallic town of Akaroa. I’m quietly enjoying my rare Steinlager Pure when couple of American gents pull up stools next to me. They place down their number five table marker, presumably indicating that food or hot drinks will be arriving shortly. Sure enough, moments […]

It’s rare that you get the opportunity to swim with dolphins in the wild. Many places around the world offer swimming with dolphins experiences, but these are usually with dolphins in captivity. Whilst we did get to see the creatures very close-up in the wild at Monkey Mia, we weren’t allowed to go in the […]

The Christchurch Gondola provided me with a bargaining chip to get Squiffy up a mountain. There’s no way Miss Lazylegs would walk up after what the High Atlas range in Morocco did to her. Knowing my new found romance with bikes, she agreed that we would hire mountain bikes at the top and ride them […]

Possums were introduced into New Zealand years ago and now the people here want rid of them because the Possum’s growing population is leading to the demise of the much-loved country’s icon, the Kiwi. So the businessmen here do what any self-respecting conservationalist would: they make ’em into socks to flog to the tourists (and […]