This gallery contains photographs of our fly-drive trip to New Zealand in February 1995. We spent 4 weeks in New Zealand (Google Maps), sharing our time equally between North Island and South Island. Travelling independently, we simply hired a car, bought a map, and with the aid of a guide book, local recommendations and some pre-planned ideas of places to visit, drove around the country.

Our path around North Island went something like this: Auckland - Whangarei - Bay of Islands - Cape Reinga - Kaitaia - Northland Park - Auckland - Waitomo Caves - Rotorua - Taupo - Turangi - Tongariro National Park - Wanganui - Palmerston North - Wellington. And on South Island: Picton - Nelson - Westport - Greymouth - Arthur?s Pass National Park - Franz Josef - Westland National Park - Haast - Mount Aspiring National Park - Wanaka - Queenstown - Fiordland National Park - Doubtful Sound - Milford Sound - Queenstown - Te Anau - Gore - Owaka - Dunedin - Oamaru - Mount Cook National Park - Lake Tekapo - Mt Somers - Christchurch - Kaikoura.

New Zealand is stunning. Beautiful, variable scenery, interesting weather(!), welcoming people and enough to do for several months, if not years. The pace of life is relaxed and you are not hassled into moving on when you want to wait for the right conditions for a photo. If you are like me, you may be better off cycling than in a car, as you will want to stop every few hundred yards for another amazing view. Take a tripod if you can to help obtain maximum depth of field on the landscapes. If you have a waterproof housing or camera, take also, so you can partcipate in some of the "adrenaline rush" activities the Kiwis are so fond of providing.

All these photos were taken on a Minolta Dynax 7xi with 100-300xi and 28-105xi lenses. Film was Fuji Velvia (50), Sensia 100 or Sensia 400.