Jane's Midlife Journey

Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand’s South Island, is located roughly half way down the island’s east coast and is the ideal place to start/finish a tour of the island. Much of today’s city is shaped by the devastating earthquake in 2011, which killed 185 people and severely damaged thousands of buildings. We spent…

Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand’s South Island, is located roughly half way down the island’s east coast and is the ideal place to start/finish a tour of the island. Much of today’s city is shaped by the devastating earthquake in 2011, which killed 185 people and severely damaged thousands of buildings. We spent…

For us, like many of the visitors we encountered on our trip to New Zealand, Auckland was the starting point of an island or country long adventure. We flew into Auckland and spent two days exploring, before setting off on our 3 week long tour covering the length of the country. Our first day in…

We spent 2 weeks driving in a loop round New Zealand’s South Island. We started at the inter island ferry port at Picton in the north east, driving round much of the island, before dropping the car at Greymouth on the north west coast. We then took the Tranz Alpine train across the southern Alps…

We spent a week exploring New Zealand’s North Island. We flew into Auckland. After a couple of days, we picked up a hire car and drove south as far as Wellington. After a quick parkrun, we caught the ferry to the South Island for more adventures. Note: We stayed in Carterton (near Wellington) for a…