New Zealand

• Floating in a South Sea bubble - Cook Islands
• A Fling with Fiji - Fiji
• On Location - New Zealand
• Wonder Walk - Roaring Burn
• 6 of the best - New Zealand
• Stein on wine, Kiwi style - New Zealand
• Singing the Praises - New Zealand
• No frills? Not us! No expense spared - New Zealand
• Geyserland! - Rotorua
• A perfect 10 for Polynesia - Tahiti

THERE'S CRIME LIKE ANYWHERE else – the Auckland News reports a police chief has been accused of sexual assault, two men have robbed 19 petrol stations in a two week rampage. But they were unarmed and no one was hurt. So it all feels safer.

And don’t believe the myth that more than three cars constitutes a traffic jam. A dual carriageway near a major city close to rush hour dispels this nonsense. But for the most part roads are superb, traffic is generally light and driving is easy with a rigidly-enforced 100km speed limit.

Auckland

Our New Zealand adventure began with a £75 fine at Auckland Airport.

One of my travelling companions had forgotten to declare the golf shoes in his luggage – you have to declare hiking boots and golf shoes – and these were spotted by the scanner, taken away to be sterilised and returned sealed in plastic bags.

Very friendly, very efficient, a free service if you fill in your customs form correctly and a useful source of tourist revenue if you don’t.

After 23 hours of flying there’s only one way to beat jet lag and that’s to get straight into it. So we dumped our bags at a hotel on the Auckland waterfront and went straight out to see the City of Sails – so called because of the huge number of boats.

Our sightseeing bus was driven by ex-patriate Sean from Barnsley. He’d moved his family to New Zealand five years ago rather hurriedly after selling the family business. We suspected, reading between the lines, that he was on the Inland Revenue’s wanted list.

We didn’t feel up to climbing the Auckland Harbour Bridge but a trip to the top of the Sky Tower is a must. Here you’ll find fabulous panoramic views of the city, interrupted only by bungy jumpers leaping from the top of the tower and dropping past the window.

That night we dined on freshly caught crayfish, with local chardonnay, in the seafood restaurant at the old ferry terminal on the waterfront. It was to be the first of many sensational meals.

We chose to stay in small boutique lodges mostly with just four or five rooms and exceptional cooking. New Zealand food is as good as you’ll find anywhere in the world - fusion cuisine with Asian, Australian and European influences.

Bay of islands

Our first stop was Kimberly Lodge, perched on a hillside at Russell in the beautiful Bay of Islands run by Virginia Holloway and partner Craig. It sleeps 10 people and guests eat together in ski chalet style. Our five course dinner on the first night included smoked quail with chilli carrot sauce, rice paper wrapped salmon with salmon mousseline and coconut pannacotta with caramelised banana.

It seemed increasingly unlikely we were going to return from this trip having lost weight.

In the 19th century, Russell was known as the hell hole of the Pacific. A whaling station full of rough sailors, grog shops and whorehouses. Today it’s a picturesque little town, a junction point from where ferries criss-cross the bay between the 150 or so islands.

Captain Cook named this the Bay of Islands back in 1769 and later in 1840 a treaty was signed at Waitangi between the Maori chiefs and the white settlers granting sovereignty to Britain. We visited the treaty house after a round of golf at Waitangi, its spectacular back nine with sweeping views of the bay.

We drank at the Duke of Marlborough, New Zealand’s oldest licensed pub, rode quad bikes at the Hururu Falls though native bush and river beds until we reached the highest point in the Bay of Islands where we could see both the east and west coasts and Cape Brett on the northernmost point.

This is the place to see dolphins close-up in their natural habitat aboard a fast twin hull speedboat. Within 40 minutes of setting out we had found a pod of 20 or so and we moved through the water with them playing under and around the boat. You lie down at the bow with your head over the front and the dolphins pop up inches from your face. Our guide Floppy could name most of the dolphins, which she identified from the chunks missing from the dorsal fins. Frisky dolphins apparently take bites out of each other as part of their mating ritual

Hawkes bay

We were looking forward to the famous Hawkes Bay wine area and the opportunity to get legless in the interests of research.

This is one of New Zealand’s largest fruit growing areas, with hundreds of wineries, and one of the best known exported brands.

Our base was Mangapapa Lodge, a charming Victorian plantation house smack in the centre of the wineries. Here we met the parents of rising Dutch tennis star Martin Verkerk and cheered him on, on TV, as he beat Mark Philippoussis to reach the semis of the Australian Open.

We toured the huge Sileni winery to see how they grew, fermented and blended their wines followed by a long leisurely lunch at the historic Mission winery. Pictures in the corridors show the Victorian Brothers tending their grapes.

Exports of New Zealand wines are at an all time high and this has encouraged owners to plant hundreds of thousands of acres of new vines. There are worries there could be a glut in the next few years.

Exports of fruit too are big business.

This is the home of the international apple tree, which has 118 types of apple growing on the one tree - each new variety is grafted on. Granny Smith would be turning in her grave.

But where, we asked our guide Rae, was New Zealand’s famous kiwi fruit?

She explained that huge amounts had been paid to farmers to stop growing the fruit because of over production… and now the only kiwi fruit she can buy in the supermarket comes from California! ‘Just the usual government bungling,’ she said.

Our tour finished in Napier, the largest art deco town in the world. If you think Miami’s architecture is cool, this is ten times better. The town was rebuilt after a major earthquake in the 30s and is packed with fantastic art deco and art nouveau buildings, bars, restaurants and coffee shops.

Christchurch

It was time to move down to the South Island and we flew from Napier to Christchurch, said to be the most English of New Zealand’s cities with punting on the River Avon, an Anglican cathedral, trams and its famous gardens.

We received a very warm welcome at the Charlotte Jane, a boutique hotel which was once a girl’s boarding school. The rooms are huge and beautifully furnished and the hotel has a wonderful restaurant in the grounds.

That night we ate at the strip – a collection of open air bars and restaurants along the river bank – which is the place to drink Steinlager and spend the evening people-watching.

There was also free entertainment as Christchurch was holding a buskers’ festival and you couldn’t walk far without stumbling over a fire eater, juggler or violinist.

Mount cook

They say that New Zealand has 30 million sheep but we saw more cattle and deer than sheep on our drive to Mount Cook.

We stopped off en route at the Juice Factory at Campbell – a sort of farmer’s market where they whisk ice cream with fresh fruit – and it was the best ice cream we’ve tasted.

Mount Cook is at the top of Lake Pukaki, with its startlingly emerald water. Fine rock salt is washed down from the glacier and this remains suspended in the water refracting the light and giving it this amazing colour.

Our room at The Hermitage had huge picture windows, looking across the valley towards the peaks, and two great restaurants. There are several well-signposted walks leading out from here and we headed for the Hooker Valley, which is a three-hour walk, passing a stone monument to all the climbers who have lost their lives in these mountains.

It’s a favourite with mountaineers and Sir Edmund Hillary trained here before his ascent of Everest.

With only a day to see as much as possible we took a scenic flight around the glaciers. The small plane had skis attached and we landed on the soft snow on the Tasman glacier. During the winter the same plane is kept busy ferrying heli-skiers onto the mountain.

Queenstown

Queenstown is the adrenaline capital of the world and a magnet for young people who want to sky dive, trek, cycle, bungy jump, raft or just hang out in one of the many bars and restaurants.

This is where AJ Hackett invented the original bungy jump over the Kawarau river and it’s a must-do for anyone under 25. We didn’t do it. Instead, we chose the Triple Challenge, a thrilling combination of jetboating on the Shotover River, a helicopter ride up the canyon followed by a hair-raising white water rafting trip down several sets of rapids and through a 100-metre long miners’ tunnel in total darkness.

We stayed at Millbrook Resort, with its spectacular par 72 golf course, a couple of miles from Arrowtown. This is a former gold rush town where you can still pan for gold in the river… its shops, galleries and and 19th century buildings are beautifully preserved.

Two restaurants compete for the title of best restaurant in town. Saffron, where we had a long and leisurely lunch, and the Postman’s House where we ate that night. Claude, the young French maitre d’ had happy memories of the two years he spent at Le Manoir in Oxford but he wasn’t hurrying back to Europe.

‘This place is brilliant, the people are very friendly and they know how to enjoy life,’ he told us.

New Zealand is the first place in the world where the sun comes up each day. And in Queenstown they are clearly determined to enjoy every minute of it.