8. South Island adventures, New Zealand

The Interislander ferry takes you across Cook Strait, which separates the two main islands of New Zealand. You enter the South Island through the maze of the Marlborough Sounds, a truly spectacular land-scape, and get to Picton, a pretty little town.

After trying out the freezing waters of the Sounds, we headed on to Nelson, the regional capital; the city is blessed with 2,500 hours of sunshine a year (the "sunny" South-East of Ireland: 1,300 hours) and is a centre for tourism and wine making. The One Ring wasn't made by Sauron, incidentally,

but by a local goldsmith (a little-known fact, that). Nelson itself is pretty as well, but served only as a jump-off point for some serious adventures. First off was sea-kayaking at Kaiteriteri, where we managed to navigate as far as the famous Split Apple Rock.

That night, not able to find accommodation, we headed for Murchison, where we went white water rafting down the Buller River and Úna managed to jump off a 4-metre high rock into the churning river! Mad fun! Absolutely superb!

Murchison is pretty much a one-horse town, but is set in such spectacular scenery that it's possible to linger much longer than such a small place would ordinarily warrant.

Finally got some washing done as well.

We drove through the magnificient mountains of the Southern Alps to Hanmer Springs, where we went horse trekking, followed by a soothing thermal bath in the eponymous springs. By now our bodies were aching from all that activity. But even better was to come.