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Prior to the release of our new Australia and New Zealand brochure (due January 2008) I was lucky enough to have the chance to explore the South Island of New Zealand.

Having chosen the self-drive option, to give us the greatest flexibility, my colleague and I headed off on our adventure. We were told by numerous locals that the weather in spring was ‘a little unpredictable’ and this was evident by the strong winds, rain, snow and even a small earthquake that we encountered. But rest assured we also had sunny days with blue skies, when I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. We quickly found that though this is wonderful driving country, the journey times generally seemed to take a little longer than anticipated, mainly due to the frequent stops to take photos of the stunning scenery.

Comparable in size to Great Britain, New Zealand has a population of only 4 million – making it one of the world’s least crowded countries, but it does have a lot of sheep! The South Island has an array of dramatic scenery from mountains, lakes and rivers to rainforests, glaciers and fiords – there is something to appeal to every visitor.

My first stop was Kaikoura, famed for its year-round sperm whale population, with tours available both by air and boat to view these mystical creatures, as well as dolphins and fur seals. I took a light aircraft flight and saw two whales – the pilot is very knowledgeable and he can even tell you when the whale is about to dive so you have to be quick with your camera to get a shot of the tail before it disappears!

Christchurch is New Zealand’s most ‘English’ city and the perfect place to relax for a few days, browsing the shops, sampling the cafes and restaurants, strolling through the inner-city park or punting on the Avon. Unfortunately we only had an overnight stay here, oh to be a tourist!

Queenstown is renowned as New Zealand’s adventure capital offering a range of activities from the extreme to relaxed exploration. This was our base from which to explore the Southland’s remote Fiordland National Park including a cruise on Milford Sound. The scenery is fantastic, and the perfect end to the day would have been to fly back to Queenstown – but the weather had other ideas and we had to do the journey by road.

The West Coast offers even more diversity – isolated by the rest of the country by the Southern Alps – here you will find Franz Josef and Fox, the only glaciers in the world that descend into rainforest. The best way to view them is to do a glacier walk, or a scenic flight with a landing.

The final leg of our journey was the TranzAlpine train from Greymouth to Christchurch – rated one of the world’s greatest scenic railway journeys - before flying home.

This is one country that I definitely need to go back to, but next time on holiday!