December saw the realisation of a long-time dream to visit and tour New Zealand. We rented a car and drove from Auckland in the North Island, down to Christchurch in the South Island, over a period of two weeks.

Along the way we visited friends and relatives in Auckland, stayed in beautiful campsites, went beer tasting, and generally met an amazing bunch of people, both locals and other tourists. The scenery was incredible and New Zealanders are the warmest, most welcoming people you’re ever likely to meet.

For the record, two weeks is not enough. There is so much of the country that we didn’t get to see. Next time! :)

Some pics up at http://picasaweb.google.com/nic.coyne/Scotland2008. Hopefully I’ll do a bit of a writeup soon.

Sunday night saw us having dinner at a Thai cultural centre where we watched various traditional dances. We all sat on the floor and had our dinner served there too. Most of the other diners were Thais, up from Bangkok on vacation.

We set off on the first full day of our ride on Monday, 18 December. We headed out of Chiang Mai on some wide roads and over some rolling hills. Some of the hills got quite long and probably qualified as climbs. We regrouped a few times, once at the top of a pass where all the cars were hooting as they went over. Our guide explained that passing motorists hoot to acknowledge the spirits and ask for permission to pass over their mountain.

A long downhill took us to an elephant park and hospital, where we got to see elephants painting and doing a few tricks. Amazing how smart these big beasts are. We had lunch at the elephant park too.

We carried on through to our overnight stop at Lampang. Dinner was at a riverside restaurant (first of many), but we got there by the traditional horse-drawn carts for which Lampang is famous.

To be continued…