Nuts in May

We are now living a life of luxury in our Camper Van and loving it. NZ is a beautiful country (so far) really green and some fantastic beaches, all deserted and really clean. The weather has been good so far and hasn't actually rained since we left Auckland on Wednesday. It is also the 2nd day of the NZ spring today so thing's are only going to get better!!

We have just been on a tour up to Cape Reigna, which is the furthest point of NZ (our John O'Groats equivalent!) it was really windy and overcast though but still enjoyable, we then headed down the 90 mile beach as the tide was out (obviously) it was pretty spectacular racing along the beach for about 70km. The driver was quite a comedian too singing and cracking jokes the whole time. We actually had a go at sand tobogganing too, needless to say I fell off and nearly broke my neck, I was doing so well until I tried to steer it to the right a bit, at which point I flew up into the air and then crashed flat onto my stomach, I was totally winded. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I did neither. I was more worried when I realised my Oakleys were in 3 pieces!! Luckily Matt found the arms and they clipped back into place!

We have being driving up the East coast so far and are now heading back down via the West, we will probably spend another 10 days or so in the North Island before getting on the ferry down to the South Island where all the mountains and glaciers are, as the North is predominantly beach.

We are loving the Camping lifestyle, as some of you will know I spent 5-6 months in France/Italy working for Eurocamp with Stew in 2002, so I'm an experienced camper, although not used to such luxury (own shower, toilet etc) The camp sites are particularly busy with other campers and we look the business when we turn up in our Rolls Royce of Campers, it's a bit of a curtain twitcher compared to some of the smaller budget options. We have started offering tours around it for $10, we also sell tea and coffee and light refreshments out the back window when we pull up in laybys.

NZ is a lovely place so far, and we are experiencing a totally different style of travelling to that of South America. We will post some pics up when we get to a city.

For anybody who is into a bit of camping check out the Mike Leigh drama, Nuts in May with Alison Steadman, it's about a square couple who go camping, it's hilarious!! If you watch it, think of Matt as Keith and me as Candice Marie. Enough said ;-)