Johnny, my wine-writing husband, has been to New Zealand many times and never fails to bang on about it. I, being half Australian, have never thought to go – obviously – but then we’ve never had time enough nor funds.

But who were we to look a gift horse in the mouth? We decided to add on another ten days at our own expense and so began planning the holiday of a lifetime – Christmas in Kiwiland. I fretted about how our 7 and 5 year-old boys would cope on a plane for 26 hours, but needn’t have bothered. Air NZ Premium Economy is as good as it gets and I had forgotten the lure of unlimited TV and Nintendo. And, thanks to Phenigan, the alarmingly strong children’s anti-histamine (ie sedative), the boys adjusted their body clocks almost without noticing.

We swapped freezing London for sunny Auckland. The City of Sails is a fine place, but New Zealand doesn’t, in my opinion, do cities well. Not enough bustle and squash for my liking. But we enjoyed the swanky harbour; bohemian Parnell; gentle Devonport and the impressive Sky Tower – where daddy, thanks to some tactical heel-dragging, managed to miss the last bungee jump of the day.

Best of all was the Auckland Memorial Museum, in the vast park known as the Domain. As enthralling as dinosaurs, warplanes and Maori Taonga (treasures) undoubtedly were, nothing thrilled the boys more than the live ‘haka’. Our subsequent imitations gave the perfect excuse for plenty of tongue sticking-out and leaping about.

Next we were off to Napier in Hawke’s Bay. An extraordinary town, rapidly rebuilt in the 30s in Art Deco style after an earthquake and fire destroyed the original, it reminded me of Teignmough in Devon – in the 70s. What was it the BA pilot was supposed to have advised passengers on landing in Auckland? “For those of you wishing to set your watches to local time, please turn them back 30 years.” We stayed in the most wonderful place – Greenhill, The Lodge. As France does gites, so New Zealand does lodges, usually rooms in someone’s house, often in amazing locations and, in every case, with delicious food and wine. The boys adored the outdoor roll-top bath and sumptuous breakfasts of blueberry muffins and bacon, coddled eggs and black pudding, expertly and patiently prepared by Mike, the chef. It was a wrench to leave.

We headed for Wellington – ‘Windy City’ – New Zealand’s capital (pop: barely 445,000) and centre of arts and culture. We stayed in the Museum Hotel, bang opposite the best museum I’ve ever been in – Te Papa. Roger was our guide and we spent many happy hours charging around the interactive, imaginatively laid out exhibits over 5 floors. The Karori Sanctuary, a mere 10 minutes from downtown, is a stunning conservation attraction which protects endangered wildlife such as the little spotted kiwi and tuatara. Here we rambled happily through its thick undergrowth, pressing carefully placed speaker buttons to hear bird calls high up in the trees whilst spotting the real thing scuttling and flying about.

In Lyall Bay, the Maranui Café is surely the finest such place in the world. A former life-saving club, it offers spectacular (and healthy) breakfasts right on the beach just moments from the airport. Ten, yes ten, minutes after leaving, we had dropped off the hire car, checked in our luggage and got our boarding passes. NZ airports are a dream: you’re not herded, but gently ushered. And everyone knows everyone. In one of the airports we heard the announcement, “Mikey, if you’re still here, you left your sunnies on the plane”. Would you get that in Heathrow?

Next stop Queenstown, extreme sports capital of the world and backpackers’ haven. Here Ferdy discovered his ‘best bit’: a bungeetrampoleen (just like the one at home in Brighton, but we didn’t tell him that). Ludo’s was the downhill go-kart luge, fast enough to thrill, but slow enough for mums and their five year-olds.

From there we drove over mountains to Omaru. This is Lord of the Rings country – arid and spectacular, though marred slightly for us by the boys whining in the back: we hadn’t realized, but without booster seats they couldn’t see out of the windows.

Our best day happened by mistake whilst heading for the Moraki boulders, an uncanny line of huge moon rocks on the shore. We overshot the carpark and ended up 4km further up the coast. We had the endless white sandy beach all to ourselves and had the happiest time walking to the boulders (surrounded by tourists) collecting bits of glittering paua shell. We value these far more highly than the perfect, shiny shop-bought ones we also took home.

Appropriately enough, we spent Christmas itself in Mistletoe Bay in the Marlborough Sounds, the fjord-land at the top of South Island. Its endless hidden coves, all heavily wooded with pre-historic tree ferns, are best negotiated by boat. We sailed to Picton to go shopping and pottering; we picked mussels off the rocks, cooked them on board and ate them with bread and buckets of Kiwi sauvignon blanc as the sun went down; we fished for carwar and ate it as a sashimi first course on Christmas day; and we watched dolphins. Accommodation was in a ‘whare’ (pronounced ‘fah-ree’) in a wonderful eco-campsite on the edge of the Queen Charlotte track.

Christmas Day – one of our best ever – was spent as guests of Chris and Julia, managers of the campsite, with a dozen or so others from all over the world. Chris’s mum looked after the boys (who played with ‘Maggie’ and ‘Dinner’ the pet pigs and got chased by a mother duck protecting her ducklings) while we went hiking in our shirtsleeves. And, had we not been permanently plastered, we would have gone kayaking as a family too.

It was with great sadness that we left the Marlborough Sounds – it felt like the holiday was coming to an end, even though we still had a whale-watching trip in Kaikoura to look forward too (very successful – we saw four) and 48 hours back in Auckland.

I made the boys write diaries every day, which was often excruciating, but we all love looking at them now, and, almost a year on, our remarkable holiday is still the topic of endless conversations.

TOP TIPS

• Don’t go to New Zealand to do nothing and relax: do everything – you’ll still relax

• Plant a tree to off-set your guilt about your carbon footprint, then fly everywhere.

• Watch Lord of the Rings before you go. FLY Air New Zealand we were all upgraded to Business class on the way back, and because of this, Ludo’s favourite bit of the holiday is still the flights.

INFO

AUCKLAND

heritagehotels.co.nz

Lodges of New Zealand lodgesofnz.co.uk

Napier

hawkesbaynz.com foodhawkesbay.co.nz greenhillretreats.com

Endless wineries often with lovely restaurants – our favourite was clearviewestate.co.nz

WELLINGTON

museumhotel.co.nz

Karori Sanctuary sanctuary.org.nz

Te PapaMuseumc tepapa.govt.nz

Maranuie Caféc maranuie.co.nz

QUEENSTOWN

kidzgo.co.nz

Skyline Gondola, Restaurant and Luge  skyline.co.nz

THE MARLBOROUGH SOUNDS

Mistletoe Bay chris@mistletoebay.co.nz

KAIKOURA  whales.co.nz waterfrontapartments.net.nz  dolphin.co.nz