Most amazing sights never seen!

Top 5 things we can’t show you:

1. Waimtomo Glow worm caves in New Zealand– the amazing underground fungus maggots were quite a site, a thousand little spots of light across the roof of the huge caves, but it’s all a dark greenish glow our poor little camera could never catch.

2. The Penguin tour in Bichenot, Tasmania. Emma and I stayed up late to see the tiny fairy penguins scuttle out of the water and waddle up the beach, easing carefully right past our silent tour group and off into the night towards their various dens. They have sharp eyes for seeing at night so flash photography would have blinded them, poor things!

3. Dorka swimming with Dolphins in Kaikoura, New Zealand. Dusky dolphins may be smaller than Bottlenose dolphins but they make up for it, but milling together in huge pods of 200-300 dolphins. Dorka said when she swam among them they were everywhere she looked. The rest of us, and possibly the camera battery, were not there at the time...

4. The Kiwi House in Otorohanga, NZ. This was an awesome little bird park, the highlight of which was of course seeing active Kiwis. These are kept in a specially darkened "reversed" room, where they have the lights on at night and off in the day, so we could view them in comfort at a civilised hour. It was a great to see these large birds digging and stalking about, but it was all pretty dim, so not really camera-friendly.

5. Blackwater rafting underneath Waitomo (again). This is another activity that takes place by torchlight – where you crawl around in caves with a tractor tyre inner tube which you can occassionally stick your bum in and float along with. Trust me , it's much more fun than it sounds, but no place for a camera...