Of my favourite cities in the world we all ended city of Sydney. Arrived Sunday morning and spent most the day exploring the main sites including the opera house and the bridge. It’s when you see the dates you realise how young this country is.

The Australians have certainly changed their attitude to the first Australians. When I first came here 20 years ago the aboriginal people were hardly mentioned. Now every tour, every performance starts with a tribute to the first people of Australia the traditional owners of the land that was so brutally taken from them. I don’t think they are getting it back though.

Back in Australia which has a very different vibe to New Zealand. It feels more more in your face. It’s a three hour flight over the Tasman Sea, so a lot further than many people think.

 Arrived in Melbourne one of the largest cities in Australia, and perhaps the most European. The weather was bizarre. in the morning we had temperatures hitting 40. The highest temperature ever recorded in the area. He was accompanied by gale force wins which made it going outside you’The highest temperature ever recorded in the area. It was accompanied by gale force winds which made going outside feel like you’re walking into a fan oven. And then within a period of 20 minutes the temperature dropped 20° to 20 C.

 Visited the Seaside resort of Saint Kilda. Packed with people soaking up the afternoon sun.

Took the long road north to the main city of the South Island Christchurch. It’s a beautiful city played out in a good structure and the vast Canterbury plane. It’s a city that has seen many tragedy not least in 2011 I don’t need earthquake hit the day. It killed nearly 200 people and the city is still struggling to recover.

 The cathedral church at Christchurch stands still in ruins. There is a plan to rebuild it but it doesn’t start for another couple of years. Yes take museum is very evocative and brings home the real personal stories of tragedy suffered on that fateful morning.

 The harbour of Lyttelton lies just over the hills from the city it’s a beautiful spot, with the contrast between the flat planes and the rugged mountains rarely so starkly revealed.

It’s a long long drive to one of the highlights of the country in the world inspiring Milford Sound. The field is hidden away at the end of a long long road that involves driving straight through the middle of a mountain. When you get there love you is stupendous. It’s also very wet. This part of the country is one of the wettest part of the entire planet. But the rain give the place it’s own beauty., with The waterfall cascading of the rock.

 There is an under water Observatory in the field where are you fine 10 m below the surface level and look at the myriad of fish floating in before you eyes.

 A drive from one side of the country to the other takes you to a city that’s the most Scottish city in New Zealand. It’s right next to the Otago Peninsula the only spot in the world where albatrosses nest on land. it’s also the home to a beautiful stately home dating from the Victorian era not something you often see New Zealand.

Starting the long journey down the West side of the country which is split down the middle by the massive range of the Southern Alps. It’s a remote part of New Zealand and incredibly beautiful. Most people come to see the two accessible glaciers the Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier.

I say accessible, At least they used to be. Not so much now with the advent of global warming. When I visited in 2000 you could walk to the glaciers and stand on the ice. Not now, the ice is only accessible by helicopter and the walk yields a distant view.

Further down the country you come to Queenstown, a beautiful spot situated above a lake. it’s the adrenaline capital of New Zealand every spot is filled with someone throwing their self off something or jumping out of something. I just looked at the views.

Time to head south and across the Cook Strait towards the south of the two main islands of New Zealand. The crossing takes about three hours through some quite stunningly beautiful scenery. Unfortunately it was teaming with rain.

 First stop was an air museum owned by film director Peter Jackson. He has collected some amazing examples of aircraft from both of the two world wars. They are displayed in dioramas giving an indication of what they went through during the two world wars. Quite evocative and moving.

 Nelson is a pretty little town on the coast of the South Island. It houses a hill which claims to be the very centre of New Zealand is quite a steep climb but worth it for the view..

Down to the capital also known as windy Wellington. And boy does it live up to its name. headed down to the key and nearly got blown off my feet. It’s windy most days of the year here as the wind gets channelled through the cook straight, the gap that lies between the two items of New Zealand. Visited the Museum which has some fascinating displays on the flora and fauna are of New Zealand, unfortunately being a Saturday it was also full up of New Zealand kids. Not so many kids in the parliament building where I had a tour. New Zealand in many ways is ahead of the game. They gave votes to women at the end of the 19 century. And in 1951 they abolished the House of Lords. Maybe some ideas there for us. Took the cable car up to the top of the botanic Gardens for some wonderful views over the harbour. It was a viewing neve seen by Captain Cook as he didn’t venture into many other harbours when he charted the outline the country at the end of the 18 century. He missed a fine view.

The west coast of the North Island is home to an almost perfect looking volcano. Mount Taranaki dominates the land with it’s almost perfect cone structure visible for miles around. You can drive halfway up it to get some stupendous views over the surrounding countryside.

To walk around the entire mountain takes five days so I did the short two hour trip from one camp to another. With the Sun shining you could see for miles around.

 The town of new Plymouth near the base of the mountain was one of the earliest European settlements in New Zealand. It has beautiful gardens in the park climbing up the side of the hill. You realise how young this country is when one if its oldest towns has existed for less than 200 years

After a long drive I hit the east coast for some beautiful sun kissed sandy beaches.

 First stop was Gisburn an important centre where Captain Cook first set eyes on New Zealand some 250 years ago. Cook’s arrival wasn’t altogether successful, his crew were scared by the natives war dance and killed six of them, resulting in Cook fleeing for his life. In a fit of pique he gave the bay the name poverty bay, as it didn’t provide anything that he required.

 Just a few hundred miles down the coast is the lovely city of Napier. It is the art deco capital of New Zealand mainly because most of the buildings were destroyed in the great earthquake of 1931 and so were rebuilt in the style of the time. It’s a lovely relaxing city running alongside the beach.

 Not all resorts are on the coast. The shores of Lake Taupo are a great place for relaxation. The lake is formed in the basin of an old volcano. A volcano that last erupted nearly 2000 years ago. It was one of the largest eruptions in the history of the planet. The ash covered the entire country of New Zealand. Roman scholars talked about that the sky is being darkened with ash on the other side of the planet. so great was the eruption. Today it’s peaceful with people swimming in the lake. The whole scene is dominated by the still active volcano on the other side of the lake.

Left Auckland heading south into the beautiful New Zealand countryside. He was the range and beauty of the countryside that caused filmmaker Peter Jackson to use New Zealand as the backdrop to his blockbuster Lord of the rings films.

Most of the sets are long gone, but one that remains is the Hobbiton set, built in the middle of the countryside just east of Hamilton. The the village was built on a sheep farm for the first movie and is now one of New Zealand’s major tourist attractions seeing people flock here from all over the world. 

Hobbiton may be a man made magical world but not far away, a real life one exists at the town of Rotorua. Puffs of steam drifts from the drains as you walk the street, mud boils in a ditch in the middle of the park and geysers spray boiling hot water at regular intervals.

Rotorua lies on a geothermal fault, which explains this strange behaviour of the Earth around these parts. The whole thing lies on the edge of a lake which is actually a dormant volcano. luckily it hasn’t exploded for many hundreds of thousands of years.