As if to provide a microcosm of a year packed with travel, we travelled to New Zealand for four days to celebrate a family birthday. Rather than eulogise about what we saw, I'll show you.
Close to Kaikoura, around 100 seals basked on the rocks.
Fabulous roads along which to drive a camper van.
Company, on two wheels.
Familiar faces at the birthday party (Rachel's mum, centre).
On the way to Arthur's Pass, NZ's highest-altitude settlement.
Traversing the South Island from west to east. Great scenes.
State Highway 73 wriggles towards Christchurch.
A sombre bus tour around Christchurch city centre showed us many of the 900 buildings to be ripped down as a result of damaged sustained during the recent earthquakes.
This display of 185 empty chairs commemorates those who died.
Here stood the Canterbury Television Building, which collapsed and caught fire, killing 115 people.
Pubs remain hauntingly deserted and untouched, with demolition notices plastered to the front doors.
Shipping containers support fragile walls. The CBD is a building site and our tour was the only one operating inside the 'red zone'.
The beautiful ChristChurch Cathedral has been decimated almost beyond the point of restoration. Its future hangs in the balance.
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