This page will provide some insight into who are our closest neighbours and illustrate how beautiful these regions are. Our closet neighbour is Papua New Guinea to the north, Indonesia to our northwest, the Pacific Islands to our east and New Zealand which lies to our south east. The distance Australia is from Europe and North America make it very difficult for many to travel to such regions because of the cost of such excursions. While many West Australians travel to south west Asia as it is cheaper, their interstate counterparts in Sydney and Melbourne tend to holiday in the Pacific or south east Asia, because of the variation in distances. In this series of pages I will try to give our prospective and opinion of some of these destinations. Firstly lets have a look at New Zealand (NZ) which has some of the most stunning mountain scenery and is on a par with European countries. The north island of NZ is quite different to the south island, this being the reason that we choose to visit the south island. It offers the chance at top class ski slopes, great towns and very friendly people.

                                These two vistas of Queenstown at night and (right) looking out across the lake from Queenstown.

Above is Mount Tasman the second highest peak in NZ while (right) is the highest peak Mount Cook. The south island is a photographers delight as around every bend is a view better than the last one. These pictures were taken by myself at the end of January and there is still plenty of snow on the peaks prior to autumn beginning. During the winter season many roads are impassable. During the dry months the danger of 'Slips' which are landslides are quite common in these areas.