When Peter Johnson's wife lay dying of cancer in Hong Kong five years ago, she asked him to make sure their two children, Ottilie and Clement, then aged three and six, kept in close touch with their maternal grandparents in England. Since then, Johnson, aged 43, a lecturer in English at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has returned to the UK regularly with the children so they can see both sets of grandparents. But this summer he decided to whisk them off to New Zealand, a country he had never visited before. Unable to drive, Johnson arrived in Auckland armed with a guidebook, backpacks, travellers' cheques and a determination that somehow, travelling overland in a clockwise direction, he and the children would see just about every place of interest. In seven weeks, they covered around 3,500 kilometres through both the North and South islands. The total cost for dad and the kids, including air tickets, transport in New Zealand, food, accommodation, entertainment, admission to tourist attractions and even souvenirs came to about HK$50,000. WHY NEW ZEALAND? I had heard nothing but praise for it and my great friend, Gary McKean, himself a Kiwi, had been urging me for years to go there. It would be nice for me and the children to have a holiday together, away from all the family commitments in the UK. Ottilie is now 11 and Clement eight. I thought that New Zealand would be a reasonably easy destination for a single parent and a non-driver to take his children for an interesting, not-too-strenuous break. We set off from Hong Kong flying MAS (Malaysian Airlines) via Kuala Lumpur, which offered the best deal - around HK$16,000 for three return tickets - and arrived in Auckland the following morning. Disliking package tours and not having been sufficiently organised to make arrangements in advance, I had no firm idea of where we would stay or what we would do, save that I had a longstanding invitation to stay in Auckland with the eldest sister of my best friend from school days. I had not seen Sian, or her husband, Murray, for more than 20 years, but they were there to meet us at the airport and take us back to their beautiful home in an Auckland suburb. First impressions were positive, though things were not exactly as I had been led to believe. 'Like England 40 years ago', was a comment I had often heard, so I had expected to be inundated with Ford Prefects and Brown Windsor soup. This was obviously not the case for, although very British in many ways (the Union Jack on the flag, the police uniforms and the street names), New Zealand, or at least Auckland, is now a modern and, to an extent unthinkable 20 years ago, cosmopolitan society. A few days later, a quick trip to one of the efficient and friendly visitor information centres (every town has one) equipped us with a New Zealand Best Pass, which would allow us to travel on all the trains and most of the Inter-City buses which run throughout the country's two main islands. At a cost of NZ$1,600 (about HK$5,000), we would be able to travel almost anywhere we wished. We didn't spend another cent on transport. Excellent value. Our first destination was Northland, that large, tapering peninsula which juts out to the northwest of Auckland and which was the site of the first European settlements in the 1840s. We travelled by bus to Pakiri for two days of horse riding on the beach (horse riding became something of a leitmotif, due to my daughter's obsession with all things equine) and then went on to Paihia in the breathtakingly beautiful Bay of Islands. Early on we established the pattern we would follow throughout the seven weeks. Decide where to go, book the bus or train (this can be done with ease over the phone), arrive at the destination, make a beeline for the visitor centre, pick a likely looking motel and wait for the owner to collect us at the centre. The average cost of good, clean accommodation was only around NZ$90. We could have chosen cheaper accommodation (there's a wide range to suit every pocket, from as low as NZ$25 in dormitories), but found that motel units - basically fully equipped two-bedroom flats - suited us best. From Paihia we took the ferry to the charming little town of Russell, New Zealand's original colonial capital. There was also a memorable day trip up the misnamed Ninety Mile Beach to Cape Reinga, the North Island's John O'Groats, where from a windswept headland we watched in awe as the Tasman Sea met the Pacific in a boiling foam far below. Returning to Auckland for another few days of Sian's and Murray's indefatigable hospitality, we passed through the last vestiges of the mighty kauri forests, which 100 years ago clad this region like a lush, green cloak. Phase two of the trip was the long journey south. First port of call was the extraordinary volcanic and thermal area centred on the popular tourist destination of Rotorua, where the all-pervasive rotten egg smell of sulphur took some getting used to. We took the train through the rich agricultural region of the Waikato, the scene of so many bloody encounters between British and Maori during the New Zealand wars. From Rotorua we headed for the small town of Taupo, on the shores of the great lake of the same name. The children again went horse riding while I took a short stroll up to the eerie Craters of the Moon, an area of bubbling mud pools and steaming volcanic vents, and browsed around one of the best wine shops I have ever seen. The next day, we again boarded the coach for the scenic journey to Napier on the coast of Hawke's Bay. Napier is a gem. Almost completely flattened by an earthquake in the 1930s, it was rebuilt in the then-fashionable art deco style and is today one of the best examples of such architecture in the world. We stayed in a hotel, the venerable Masonic, the design of which, not to mention the old-fashioned ambience, I could not resist. From Napier it was on to Wellington (a rather dull and provincial capital city, despite its wonderful location) and from there, by inter-island ferry, across the Cook Strait and through the sublime Marlborough Sounds to Picton, the gateway to the majestic and relatively empty South Island. A train trip past the seal colonies on the Kaikoura Coast took us to that most English of New Zealand cities, Christchurch, with its magnificent cathedral and the sleepy Avon River. After Christchurch, it was Oamaru, one of New Zealand's best-kept secrets and a place we probably would have passed by had we not promised to visit the son of our Lantau friend, Gary. Oamaru is a splendid little town with fine classical buildings in the local stone and two penguin colonies, which you can observe at close quarters. Another train trip took us to the somewhat forgettable town of Invercargill, from which we made a hurried departure for Stewart Island (population around 450), south of which there is nothing except Antarctica and where my son, to his great delight, caught a decent sized shark. Back across the Foveaux Strait, we took the coach to New Zealand's premier tourist destination of Queenstown. The steamer trip on Lake Wakatipu, the jet boat up the Shotover River, the cable car to the luge atop Bob's Peak and, especially for the children, who had never seen snow, the day's skiing at Coronet Peak, made this one of the most memorable parts of the holiday. From Queenstown it was on to the Franz Joseph Glacier, which if you have never seen such a thing is certainly impressive, and then to Greymouth, from where we took the breathtaking Trans-Alpine railway, which was built in the 19th century, over Arthur's Pass back to Christchurch. From now on we were retracing our steps, but after leaving Wellington, we decided to get off at Otorahanga, the nearest station to the famous glow worm caves at Waitomo and the place where we at last caught a glimpse of that potent symbol of New Zealand, the kiwi, though in captivity. Two days later we were back in Auckland, where we spent a day in the superb National Museum. Having had no particular plan, we managed to see more of the country than many New Zealanders. The unfailing courtesy and friendliness of the people and the clean and efficient transport system enabled us to sample the great variety of landscape and culture that New Zealand has to offer in comfort. It sounds a gruelling trip, but we all came back rested and relaxed. The children are still talking about the things we saw and did. Next year, it will be Australia, anti-clockwise. Have you done it your way to experience an off-beat holiday? Tell us about it. E-mail Mike Currie at mikec@scmp.com Graphic: newz25GFA