It's a good life

Today we took the camper van back to the depot, it was a bit sad as we really have enjoyed every minute of the camping lifestyle. We are now staying in a hostel right in the centre of Auckland, it's really strange being back in a hostel with lots of scrotes with no money living on jam sandwiches. Luckily for us it's only one night.

Taking the van back was a bit stressful as there are so many things that they can charge you for when you return it, i.e the toilet not being empty, the over flow tank not being empty, the inside being dirty, and marks inside/outside the van and so much other detailed stuff. Thankfully we hadn't had any bumps or scrapes and we returned the van in tip top condition so we got our full deposit back, which means we wont have to come home early ;o)

We haven't booked any accommodation for Fiji were just going to wing it, after all whats the point in being independent travellers?!?! We have looked at a few of the resorts though and have an idea of where we want to stay which is probably the Yasawa Island. A lot of people go island hopping and stay at different resorts for a couple of days at a time, but we can't be bothered to spend time on boats and packing our stuff up so were just going to find a decent resort and chill out for the duration.

Tonight we are meeting Kirsten (Steens sister) so were looking forward to that, we're going for a few beers and hopefully a curry of some description.

So to summarise NZ, it really is a beautiful, friendly and laid back country, their hospitality knows no bounds. Everybody wants to chat and find out where you're from, where you're going and to tell you of great things to see and do here. The scenery is amazing, you can't drive anywhere and not take in some mountainous peaks, stunning coast line or a few thousand sheep along the way. They have an excellent standard of living, great pubs and restaurants and it is considerably cheaper than the U.K, although the cost of living over here is rapidly on the increase. It is certainly a place where we both feel we could one day live and integrate into the NZ lifestyle and culture with no difficulty.

Who knows maybe when we're 65!!

Sing when you're winning!

Hi all, sorry for the delay in posting, we have been busy getting back from the South Island, Up North again. We are now back in Auckland, well on the outskirts really and we will stay here until we take The Shed back on Saturday, once we've done that we have booked to stay in a Hostel in the centre of Auckland for Saturday night, ready to jet off to Fiji on Sunday, woo hoo!!

The last time I blogged we were in the Abel Tasman Region and the weather was a bit naff, well luckily for us it picked up. We managed to get to a campsite with views overlooking the sea and there we booked our trip to the Abel Tasman National Park, for anybody that looks at our pics on Flickr you've probably seen the place already.

You are taxied by a boat round the coast line taking in all the wildlife reserves and stunning beaches. The seas were green and the sands golden, it was also gloriously sunny this particular day which we were really pleased about. We then got dropped off at a beach literally in the middle of the National Park and told where we are to meet up again 4 hours later. We then did a 10k walk through the park and round the coast line, it was great although a little muddy underfoot due to all the rain. We had our lunch on the beach with the waves lapping round our ankles, amidst the sand flies. We then walked further along the coast to a place called Anchorage where we had arranged to be picked up it was a really nice day, we were cream crackered when we got back.

There have been a few earthquakes whilst we have been in NZ, nothing major according to the locals and they are also not uncommon. Anyway the day after we had our jaunt out we were asleep in the camper it was about 7.30, and all of a sudden it started to judder for about 10 seconds, it felt like there was somebody rocking it from side to side (there wasn't as we looked out of the window to check!) after speaking to a local guy at one of the campsites, we told him where we were and he advised that we had probably felt the tremors from one of the quakes. Fancy that!!

After Abel Tasman we drove up to Nelson, a busy place for NZ. We went to the cinema to watch The Kingdom (great film) and swapped lots of books that we had accumulated at a second hand book shop, then it started to rain again. It seems for every dry 24 hours you have you have to endure 48 hours of rain. So we headed for the nearest and driest place we could find, which just so happened to be a pub!! complete coincidence. It turned into a good night, we managed to sample many of the beers from the nearby Macs brewery. I can't remember much of the night once we left there ;-)

The next day (still in Nelson) we hired some mountain bikes from the campsite and headed out to the next nearest town which was about 25k (I'm out of breath now just thinking about it!) Again it was a lovely sunny day, but it was blowing a gale, not ideal biking conditions for two lazy office workers!! But we managed it, we stopped off for a fresh fruit ice cream and strawberries on the way which made the whole day completely worthwhile, it was yummy! We got back late afternoon like a couple of cripples, we could hardly walk. We cooked our tea, polished of a bottle of wine and hit the sack at about 8 o'clock, proper rock and roll lifestyle!

After Nelson we headed back up to Picton as we were to catch the ferry that day (Saturday) back to the North Island. We had hoped to stay a few more days on the South originally, but due to bad weather and cold temperatures at night we decided that it would be better to head North where it is always a few degrees warmer. The ferry crossing was plain sailing (no pun intended) and we got back to Wellington mid afternoon. We then headed up the West coast and decided to stop of when we had had enough of driving, which wasn't long as we had been up since 6.30 and was a bit tired, we stayed at a place beginning with O?? (I 'm sorry but I have completely lost track of all the different places we've stayed as the names are all in Maori) Next day we hit the road again and continuing North stopped off again at Lake Taupo, it was a lovely sunny and even warm day so we sat out for a bit before we set off for a place called Matamata where we stayed the night.

After this we headed up to The Coromandel Peninsula, which is kind of East of Auckland, and not an area we stopped at on the way down. A few people we had met on the camp sites had said how nice it is so we decided with the extra days spare we had from the South Island we would spend up here. Well it didn't really do anything for us to be honest, it was just full of drab little places along the coast with nothing much in the way of entertainment (For all you Northerners imagine Paull in winter?!?!?) The only hustle and bustle we came across were some road works. We carried on to Coromandel and stayed there a night, again the weather was really hot and sunny so we got our deck chairs out and had a lazy day absorbing some much needed rays.

After Coromandel we went to Haihi which is another small coastal resort with absolutely nothing to do, not even a supermarket. We got another beach side site and had ANOTHER lazy day doing nothing in particular except reading and cryptic cross word puzzles. Oh yeah and Matt had picked up a newspaper so he has been catching up with all the Rugby news, a bit of comedy always help eh!
We left Haihi this morning and here we are..

So the rugby.. I'm not big into Rugby Union to be honest or league for that matter, although I do get regular updates from my dad who is an avid FC fan. All I can compare the All Blacks defeat to is 9/11. They are absolutely gutted by the result, every day the headlines are about the team, their performance and their future. They were so confident that they would win it this time round that most of them have been saving for years to make the trip to Europe, buy tickets to the final, and one guy has even had a tattoo done on his leg of dates and some other nonsense.It really is a tragedy for the Kiwis, it will be a long time before they recover from it, if they ever do? As for the England result, me and Matt are both made up, especially as we will be out there at the end of October. The Ozzies are also taking it quite badly, especially loosing to The Britz. All we hope now is that we can beat France on Sunday and get through to the final. We will also be rooting for Argentina too.

We fly to Fiji on Sunday at 2 o'clock, so we should hopefully be stripped off and on the beach for 5 o'clock he he! I cant wait to buy some sun tan cream and mozzie spray and get my summer togs out from the hidden depths of my ruck sack, I was beginning to think they would never see the light of day.

Bring on Fiji...

England 12 - (S)Oz 10

Not a lot more to add to this blog...

Will post more in a couple of days when we get to a BIG City.

Sheep, Books and Rain

Were now in the Abel Tasman region after working our way up the wet and miserable West Coast, and it's still wet and miserable! It hasn't stopped raining for almost 3 days now!!

We went up to Lake Wanaka after Queenstown and stayed there for a night, we managed to get out and do some walking, even though it was blowing a gale. It's a nice little place but not a great deal going on there. After Lake Wanaka we headed 'Up North' to Franz Josef where we were hoping to go up in a helicopter over the Glaciers and then do some walking on them. Well unfortunately the weather would not permit heli rides up there, so we didn't manage to see the Glacier at all. We wouldn't have even been able to see it from the viewing areas as the visibility was so poor. Heavy rain and cloud is how I will remember Franz Josef, which is a shame, especially for Matt as this was on his list of top things to see and do.

We left there after one night, in the persisting rain and headed further North towards Nelson, by now it had been raining over 24 hours, with no respite. We really were feeling quite deflated, it's not just showers, it really is throwing it down. We decided to spend the day driving as we knew we wouldn't be able to do anything if we stopped off anywhere, we arrived at a small town called Murcheson yesterday at about 4pm. Miraculously the rain stopped, the cloud began to break and we managed to see a bit of blue sky, hurrah! It was to be short lived though as it was raining again within a couple of hours and hasn't stopped since.

The campsite we stayed at yesterday was lovely, in a really rural setting, it was quite idyllic really. When we were checking in the woman who owns it told me she had a baby lamb that they were hand rearing and that she would be out to feed it soon if I wanted to have a look. Well me being the animal lover I am didn't need telling twice, we parked "the shed" up and I went across to the lamb enclosure where there were 3 lambs and a sheep. The story is that one of the lambs is a triplet (2 boys one female) and she wasn't getting any milk from her mother as they boys were taking it all, so they decided to feed her themselves. She is beautiful at 1 month old and she is called Amanda. Now for those of you that work in ecomet and are reading this the first person that will spring to mind is Amanda Hodson! Well I'm sorry to say that unlike AH this lamb really was as pure as the driven snow ;-) She was bleating her little lungs out as we came up to give her the bottle of milk, and she guzzled it down greedily, nearly taking the bottle from my hand (see pic) It was a great experience, and I have to say I was a bit sorry to leave after the morning feed today. She is in great health though and is eating grass too now which is a good sign (obviously)

We've been reading lots over the last few weeks, especially when the weather is like this. I picked up a great book in Auckland called The Boss, and it is a really good read. I would recommend it to all my (ex) colleagues at Comet to read. Basically it is made up of lots of different horror stories employees have about their bosses, and things that they have suffered at work, how it impacts their home life etc. There really are some shocking examples in there and probably some that you may be able to relate to. I think I can safely say that I have never worked for anybody quite as horrific as some of these people. It is written by author Andrew O'keeffe, check out the website for more info http://www.greatbosses.com/

Ooo, I think the sun is on it's way out, I should probably take a photo!!

Tattooed Up!

Two posts within a week, Jesus that's more than Van Gogh sold in a lifetime!

As promised here is a pic of our newly "engraved" tattooes, and yes before anyone asks it did hurt. Imagine someone scraping glass along your arm, not really deep but really slow and delibrate. It felt like that. Anyway, I'm not going to write anymore as I'm too busy reading the news.

Adios,

Sweet as a Nut!!

Hi All, we're now in Queenstown which is an absolute hive of activity (and YOUNG backpackers) we never realised NZ could be so busy!

We left Dunedin on Monday after a couple of uneventful days there due to really bad weather, we did manage to get to a Thai restaurant and the pub on Saturday though. We then went to Te Anau on the West Coast, it was quite a drive at almost 5 hours, probably our longest one since we arrived in NZ, but it was well worth it. The scenery on the West is stunning, massive lakes surrounded by snow capped mountains, with a bright blue sky and that lovely crisp air (that you don't really get at home!!) We stayed at Te Anau for 2 nights and yesterday we went on a tour down to Milford Sound, what a spectacular place that is. It is home of the Fiordlands, mountain after mountain and natural waterfalls cascading everywhere. The roads are really steep and wind round and round through the mountains and down to Milford Sound where we then got on the boat and sailed through the Fiords and into the Tasman Sea, we even saw a bottle nosed dolphin. It was a gloriously sunny day without a cloud in the sky, we couldn't have picked a better day. On the way to the cruise we stopped off at many view points to take in pics and short walks, it really was a good day.

While we were on the boat the Skipper gives you information on the surrounding area, wildlife and conservation that kind of thing. I commented to Matt that the guy had a really strong Northern accent, that strong in fact that I thought he was from Hull. Matt agreed. A bit later I went to the Skipper and asked him where in the UK he was from... "I'm from Hull originally" he said. Anyway after a bit of banter and reminiscing about the place he started talking about some of his family members coming out to visit at Christmas and mentioned their names, he only turns out to be the cousin of Barrreeeeeeeey Meanwell (for all you non Comet people, he works in IT in Hull) I was speechless (well almost!) It is the furthest I have ever been from home in my life and I meet somebody from my home town. Amazing. If you checked the odds I've probably as much chance of winning the lottery! Anyway we had our pic took for Bawwweeeeey, so here ya go Baz, me and your cousin Darren "at sea" :-)

On the tour we also spotted a guy with a really big hooter, so we have taken a picture of him too, we know it's rude, but hey we're Britz on Tour!!!

Today I made enquiries about a Skydive, I'm still toying with the idea, although the chances are that I wont do one. Matt is really not into Skydives/planes so I'm not really getting the vibe and enthusiasm to do it, not that I should let that stop me, maybe I'm just looking for an easy cop out??

We have just over 2 weeks left in NZ before we head off for some beach in Fiji (bliss) we will continue to head North, taking in Lake Wanaka and then up to Abel Tasman and Nelson. We are doing plenty of walking and hope to get some mountain biking done in Lake Wanaka, the only problem we have is that the weather is so unpredictable and we have certainly had our fair share of rain since we arrived in the South. We will then cross back to the North and work our way back up to Auckland via the West Coast(ish) When we get to Auckland we are planning on meeting up with Steens sister Kirsten who is also in NZ at the moment, it's going to be the night before we fly too, maybe a night out with a beer drinking Dane is not such a good idea before a flight ;-)

We have booked our camper for Oz, we have come right down in size as we have both agreed that driving a small porta kabin type vehicle around Oz is not going to be the most economical and environmentally friendly way of travel! That said we have got a 3 man (or 1 man, 1 woman and a child) size camper. The one we have at the moment is quite ostentatious by camper van standards and is a bit big and square. You could quite easily swing a cat in it if you were that way inclined, luckily for NZ cats we're not.

So today we are going to be wild and wacky.. were off for a tattoo!!! I can hear the GASPS from our folks, but hey, you know what kids are like when they're away from home!! Don't worry were not going for one of the BIG Maouri style tatts that the All Blacks adorn themselves with, were going to have little butterflies... I'm joking, you'll have to watch this space, pics will follow.

For anybody that is interested there are pics of Millford Sound on Flickr and also the guy with the big hooter.

Part of fish with friend at last...(7)

Well it has been about 3 years since I last blogged, and Michelle has written 10, so I thought I'd better write one or change the name of this blog to Michelle 2007. So we're in the South Island of New Zealand in a place called Dunedin (which is the Gaelic name for Edinburgh). There is a big Scottish contingent here, not sure why exactly, and it is one of the most historical places in the whole of New Zealand. It think it is also the most Southerly point either of us has been to in the World. There are Victorian buildings here that were actually built in Victorian times, rather than replicas. I know they are still only 100 years old but that is ancient in NZ as most things are (and look) like they were built in the 1970's. I suppose it's only fair though as this is a very young country compared to most in Europe and it really is obvious to us Brits. Still Dunedin seems like a nice place so far, and we're haven't even made it in to the main town square (or Octagon apparently) yet having just stopped off for a Thai lunch and now wandering into an Internet cafe!

So as to the strange title of this post; obviously being away for 10 months we are finding ourselves with a lot of free time on our hands. Now we are managing to fill this with tours, eating, sleeping, walking, sand boarding, ferry crossings, amongst other things, but now that we have a camper van (with electricity in most places!) we probably spend more time chilling out there. It is easier and nicer to spend time in our own space as it was in South America as most places we were in was hostels that we didn't really fancy spending time lounging around in. So we are spending a lot more time chilling out, drinking copious amounts of tea and coffee and yes... wait for it... reading "womens" magazines. I may as well come clean and admit that I am enjoying them as much as Michelle as I haven't got an excuse really. We've got a TV in our van too which means I could watch TV instead of reading magazines but I don't.

I am now "up-to-speed" with all the celebs affairs (news affairs not adulterous affairs although to be fair most of their news affairs do involve someone elses husband or wife or both!!); Nicole Richie's eating disorders, yes she has got all of them I think, Brangelina's adoptions, they seem to be averaging one Cambodian a week at the moment. By the way Brangelina is the correct way of saying Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie apparently and anyone who doesn't use this is so last season. Following the same nomenclature Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are called TomKat for short and David and Victoria (Beckham obviously) are called David and Skinny Bitch. Anyway where was I; yes also appearing in every single one of these mags, is Jennifer Aniston, Hugh Grant, Britney Spears (showing some shaven part of her anatomy), numerous black rappers, Pink, Oprah Winfrey, Paris Hilton, Keira Knightley and a host of other screwed up people! p.s. I don't think Hugh Grant is screwed up by the way, although saying that he did have an incident with a black prostitute a few years back. What also makes me laugh is the fact that one week you'll be reading about some celeb couple getting hitched, e.g. Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson, and the following week you'll be reading about them splitting up (and one of them trying to commit suicide and failing - sorry that bit has only happened once, and I actually quite like Owen Wilson, the Wedding Crashers is a good film.)

But, I hasten to add, in my defence, the reason we buy/borrow these magazines is not for the news (if you can call it news, I've not seen one article on the deforestation problems in Bangladesh) BUT for the puzzles. Yes, each one of these mags has umpteen puzzles in them ranging from Sudokus, crosswords, word searches, gridwords (whatever they are) and cryptic crosswords. Our favourite at the moment is the cryptic crosswords. Now, I've never been any good at these really. I know my Mum and Dad do the Daily Mail one and Michelle's Dad (Geoff) does the Telegraph one on Sundays. To be honest he completes it in the same day which I find quite a feat when you read the clues. Even when he explains the answers and how to get there I still don't follow more than half of them! And Deyesy and Roly attempt the Sun Cryptic crossword at lunchtimes in the Fox but really it was Bryan who used to finish them (sorry for any non-Comet people reading this you won't know who any of these people are or indeed what the Fox is.) Luckily the "women's" mags cryptic crosswords are relatively easy but it is still quite taxing and at least it's giving our brain a good workout and we're not turning into retards!

So as you've probably guessed by now the title of this blog is in fact a cryptic crossword clue , the number after it is the number of letters in the answer (derrrr!). My challenge to you is to email me the answer (I won't write my email here otherwise I'll end up getting even more adverts for Viagra than I currently get!) and the first correct answer will receive errrr.... nothing, but I'll give them a special mention in my next blog (probably in February next year judging by previous posts). Also please don't post the answer as a comment otherwise you'll spoil the fun for everyone else!

Well, that's all from me, I'm off to check my Facebook, shares, bank account, weather, news!

Adios,

The South Island - Untouched

Were now in the South Island, after taking the ferry across The Cook Straits on Monday morning from Wellington to Picton.

Wellington is a funny little place, to say it is The Capital City of New Zealand it is another very quiet City. We went in on Saturday on the bus, it took about 30 minutes and was a great drive along the harbour with the Sky Line (such as it is) in the distance. We expected it to be quite busy with it being Saturday but when we started wandering round it became apparent that Wellington was less busier than Auckland, which is really weird. If you go into London on any day of the week there is such a buzz, with lots of hustle and bustle. There is no barging around with people bumping into you, it's just all really civilised and laid back. It takes some getting used to!!

We're still using the Lonely Planet as our guide, so on their recommendation we headed down to Courtenay Place which is where "it's all at" in Wellington. There are lots of English style pubs and Asian restaurants, cinemas, shops etc. We were ambling along when we saw a sign outside an Indian which read "All you can eat buffet $10 each". Matt was in through the door and onto his first plate before I had even finished reading the advert! It was a bargain, especially when you're on a (kind of) budget and trying to watch what you spend. We bounced out of there about 90 minutes later, not caring if we never ate Indian food again :-)

The South Island is like being in another country compared to the North. On Monday we drove to Kaikoura from the ferry in Picton, and then yesterday we left Kaikoura and are now in Christchurch. In the time that we have been on the road we cant have passed more than 50 cars maximum. There are practically no houses, only farms, and we have passed field after field full of Sheep! It is certainly safe to say that since being in the South we have encountered more sheep than people. There are millions of them, all with little lambs too frolicking in the fields. I said to Matt yesterday it's not a bad life being an animal, all you have to do is eat, drink and sleep all day, and the only thing that is expected of you is to gain weight. What could be better, my three favourite things and no weight worries. Bliss!!!

In Kaikoura we went on a whale watching tour off the East Coast, it is a place that is visited for this particular reason. It was an amazing tour and we actually managed to see 3 sperm whales, it was fascinating. The only thing neither of us enjoyed was the boat ride. We had to go out 13 miles to see the Whales and the sea was reportedly quite choppy that day. What an understatement, on the way there we were almost lifted out of our seats as we bounced off the waves, then once we spotted the whales and had to hover around the boat was just bouncing about all over the place, so much so that Matt lost his Breakfast to the Pacific Ocean!!

It is normally expected to see one maybe 2 whales maximum, so for us to see three, we were very lucky. They are spotted by the water that they spray out, they then just float (even at that size and weight) on the surface, after about 5-10 minutes of this, they slightly raise themselves out of the water and flip their tail up in the air before going deep down into The Ocean for a monster feed. They eat the equivalent of 5.5 human beings a day!!! On the boat trip we watched a DVD and were given a talk about whales and their existence, they are truly amazing creatures and it was money well spent.

On the trip we got chatting to an English couple (Mike and Katie) who we had seen a few times on the North Island, and again on the ferry crossing, they asked us if we fancied going to the local pub quiz that night as they were sick of going to bed at 9pm (it's a common theme with campervanners) So that night we headed into "town" to the local, the streets were deserted apart from a few tumble weeds. The inside of the pub didn't appear to be much busier either, although it did soon liven up (by NZ standards) We named our team "The Britz on Tour" and the quiz began. Well I'm not the best at quizzes to be honest and our new found quiz enthusiasts were about the same, we came out of the 1st round with a mere 2 points! But what you have to understand is that we had 2 points more than anybody else!!! Oh yes, if we were bad the other teams were appalling ;o) The quiz went on for about 10 rounds, and every 2 rounds or so (we lost count) we were given a free Aftershock. We were in quite a sorry (and loud) state by the time the quiz ended. But, after much banter with the Kiwi Quiz master and his accomplice it turned out that we won the quiz quite convincingly and were rewarded with $50NZ to spend behind the bar. Result! NZ did beat England at cricket though while we were in the throes of quizzing, at least all was not lost ;-)

We are heading further South tomorrow for Dunedin, then we will probably start heading across country to Milford Sound, and then to the Adventure Capital of NZ, Queenstown. We have been a bit boring in NZ so far in that we haven't undertaken any extreme activities, yet!! I was a bit put off after my 1st attempt at Sand boarding, I did take a really bad tumble and was in pain for days as a result. So watch this space and see if one of us will attempt a tandem sky dive or a bungee!!

Life Is Sweet

Hi all. We are now in a place called Lower Hutt which is about 20k outside of Wellington, the Capital City. We have worked our way down through Rotorua, Taupo Lake, Napier, Upper Hutt. The drives have been spectacular with some stunning scenery. The weather has also been quite kind, although it did pi$$ down all day yesterday. We get the ferry to the South Island on Monday morning at 8.30.

On Thursday while you were all sleeping we took a wine tour in the Hawkes Bay region, which is famous for all it's wineries. We were picked up by a Kiwi called Vince (aka Vunce!) who was a bit of a character, he then taxied us to 5 different wineries while we got pleasantly intoxicated. Not bad for an afternoons work. The tour was really interesting, especially if you like fine wines. They explain the different varieties of grape, the growing conditions that are required, and what wines are suited to particular dishes. I say the tour was interesting, it was until the 3rd winery, at which point I was so drunk I couldn't take in half of what they were telling us. It was a really fun day though and we came back with 4 cracking bottles to enjoy on our travels!!

We are just about to head off into Wellington, it is only a small place for a Capital City, and Auckland is reported to be a much bigger place.

New Zealand is so laid back and sparsely populated it is difficult to get stressed about anything. There is no rush hour traffic to speak of, and the towns and cities are deserted in comparison to back home (and Sth America) Every day is like a Sunday. There appear to be far too many shops and restaurants for the amount of people that live here. The South Island is even more sparsely populated, with about a million of the whole 4 million NZ population living there.

We have just booked our Camper for Oz, we have had to downsize from the luxury we are enjoying at the moment, for two reasons really. One is that it is high season when we get there in Oct (26th) whereas here in NZ at the moment it is low season so we got more for our money, and also due to the amount of mileage we will be covering in Oz, we needed something smaller and more economical on the roads. We have got a 3 berth Backpacker Camper, with it's own kitchen and microwave etc, only thing were missing is a toilet and lots of space. The beauty of being in Oz though is that the weather will be hot most of the time. It will be easier for Matt too as the camper we have at the moment is like driving a small house. To be honest I bet there are some City dwellers in London that don't have as much room as we have in this camper!! I'm going to arrange to have my drivers licence posted out too so that I will be able to share some of the driving, I can't imagine that being much fun though as Matt doesn't make a very good passenger!

Every time we hit the road, we have to go through a check off list before we set off. It's called Cabin Crew prepare for take off!! We have to check all the overhead lockers are closed and that all bags are firmly positioned under your seats and that were all wearing seat belts!! Good thing is though unlike flying we don't get any turbulence ;-)

Have a nice weekend all!

Kiwi Fruit's

No I'm not referring to the New Zealand Gay scene, I'm talking about the little brown fury on the outside and lovely and juicy green on the inside fruits. As you no doubt know this is where Kiwis come from, although they did apparently originate in China (Chinese Gooseberry) They are BIG business over here and it is a billion dollar industry for NZ. We have just driven through a place called Te Puke, which is the Kiwi (fruit) capital of NZ, there are literally acres of fields growing them. A lot of Backpackers work for the farmers picking them allegedly. Me and Matt would love to help out but I'm afraid working is not on our list of things do to ;-)

Yesterday we went to visit Mount Maunganui, in the Bay of Plenty. We weren't expecting anything other than quite a large mountain and a bit of beach, so it was just going to be a bit of a stop off en route to Rotrura, but when we got there the sun was shining and the beach was stunning with a campsite right beside it, so we decided to park up and stay the night. That really is the beauty of having your own accommodation in the back, if you like somewhere that much then you can just decide to stay. We then climbed up the mountain (see pics) which was an absolute killer, just a constant climb for about 40 minutes, we were gasping when we reached the top. It was worth the pain though as the views across the Pacific were stunning, and the coastline you could see for miles.

We have being having some top notch gourmet camper van grub since we've been on the road, I cooked a cracking vegi Chili the other night, we've also had a vindaloo and rice(!) and some great pasta dishes, it's surprising what you can muster up with limited resource, although a 3 ring gas stove with grill and a microwave oven is hardly call for improvising is it??

The camp sites are really well equipped in NZ, they have great showers with 24 hour hot water (unlike Sth America where your lucky to get 2 hours of hot water!) the kitchens are fully equipped with hobs, ovens, microwaves, fridge freezers and toasters and are really clean. There are on site laundry rooms with iron and board (again though I didn't come away to iron!!) The point I'm trying to make (to all you non campers) is camping is not about "roughing it" like it was years ago. There is so much hi tech camping equipment you can buy now and so many on site facilities that it really is like home from home, but with the bonus of being in the great outdoors and in touch with nature ;-)

There seems to be an unwritten rule of the road here in NZ for camper drivers, in that they all give each other that knowing nod as they pass on the road, as if we all have some great secret that only caravaners know about!! he he.

Geeks ;o)

Heading 'Sarf

We are now South of Auckland and on the East coast in a place called The Bay of Plenty. We are camped up in a place called Tauranga, which is quite a busy little place (by NZ standards) There are lots of English style pubs, lots of Asian and Indian restaurants etc. The only downside is that its persisting down, it has been raining for almost 24 hours non-stop!

We arrived yesterday after leaving a place called Dargaville, it should be re-named Darkerville, it was a bit of a sleepy hollow and me and Matt stood out like sore thumbs. We would have just driven straight through it but we had been driving quite a bit that day and it was about to get dark. For anybody that knows Hull it was like camping on St Andrews Quay?!

We are here for another night before heading further South to a place called Rotorua, Matt has visited this place before so we know what to expect, it also has some thermal springs where we hope to bathe our trotters, in temperatures much higher than Bolivia!

NZ really is a beautiful country and totally different to what I was expecting, it is really hilly, there are hardly any cars on the roads at all and they have some stunning beaches that would easily compare to Thailand, unfortunately it's not that hot though!
NZ has a population of just over 4 million people and the whole country is apparently the equivalent size of England, Scotland and Wales. When you think in the UK there are approximately 6 million people living in London alone (I don't mean living alone) so it gives you an idea of how sparsely populated the place is?

We have been taking in lots of sights and beaches on our drive round and its great not to have to rely on public transport and tour companies to get us anywhere (exc our trip up the Cape) It is still very early in the season for campers in general so we can pick and choose where we stay and where we pitch (which makes me wonder how we ended up in Dargerville!!)

Nobody here understands a word I say, it was easier for me to converse with South Americans than it is with Kiwi's, it's obviously my Northern accent. We have met quite a few Northerners while we've been here, some from Nottingham, Oldham, and a guy who had actually emigrated here 30 years ago from Middlesborough, the woman who owned one of the campsites we stayed on was from Darlington, and the place were at now, the family travelled round the UK, down the East Coast through York and down into Bath.

Oooooh it's a small world!!

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 ;-)

Oh my God I can't believe it...

I've never been this far away from home (for all you Kaiser Chief fans!)

We arrived in NZ yesterday morning at about 6am, after a 13+ hour flight from Argentina. From Argentina we had to first fly back to Santiago, Chile, our flight was 11:40am so we were up early packing all our stuff up and enjoying our last Argentinian breakfast of coffee and croissants (hmmmm!) We took a taxi to the airport as it was 35km from Buenos Aires so we didn't want to chance Public Transport. Our flight was no hassle, there was a bit of confusion with our flight though as it had changed from the original booking and everybody was sending us in different directions to get checked in, we eventually managed it and headed off to the departure lounge. The flight to Chile is only 2 hours so we seemed to be getting off just as we were getting comfortable. Once we got to Chile we had to go through more security checks and through the "In Transit" section back into another departure lounge to wait for our NZ flight. The only downside to this was, our next flight wasn't departing until 22:45, which was made even worse by the fact that when we got to Chile we had to put our watches back an hour because of the time zones in America. It was a long long day, has anybody ever seen the film Terminal with Tom Hanks??

The flight to NZ was a bloody long one, we were both tired after being up all day and just sat about so we were looking forward to getting some shut eye on the plane. When we boarded and got into our seats it was quite obvious that we were in for a very uncomfortable flight, the plane was tiny for a long haul trip, we both agreed that we had been on bigger flights to Europe. I haven't got particularly long legs but even I was cramped. The flight was full too, we were packed in like sardines! But there wasn't a lot we could do so it was a case of grin and bear it. The in flight entertainment was good with loads of good films and games and it was good to be back among so many English speaking people again (even if they were all loud mouthed Ozzies!!) The flight was really bumpy too, we had constant turbulence for over 2 hours. Im not a nervous flyer (unlike Matt who isn't too keen) but I have to say it's one of the longest and most uncomfortable I've ever been on.

It got dark in Chile at about 6pm on Friday and we didn't see daylight then for about another 15 hours, because you cross over the date line too on the way to NZ we lost a whole day. We were totally disorientated when we landed (still in darkness) and mentally and physically exhausted.

We got through the tight Passport Control without any real hassle, the Kiwi's really are friendly people, and it was all "good on ya" kind of banter all the way through. We did get our shoes checked and asked if we had any feathers or "raw hide" in our back packs!! So once we got out of the airport we were as excited as we could be considering our mental state, we were a pit pi$$ed off as we couldn't check into our hostel until 8am, and even then couldn't have our room until 11am (which actually turned out to be nearer 1pm!!) as there was somebody still in it. From the airport we took the "cheap" bus, there were a few options of getting to the hostal but we decided that because it was English speaking that we would take the bus, if we got lost we could quite easily ask somebody the way, ask the bus driver to tell us where to get off etc, all the things that we could never communicate to people in Sth America because of the language barrier.

Once we got our room we had a shower and unpacked our stuff (all in desperate need of washing!) We didn't want to go straight to bed as we knew we wouldn't sleep in the evening, I had quite bad motion sickness from the flight though and still felt like we were on it, it was a weird feeling. We went for a walk in the area where were staying which is Parnell Road. It's full of restaurants and pubs, heaven. They all speak English and the majority of restaurants are Indian and Thai. We could probably spend the whole 7 weeks here quite happily ;-) We headed for an Irish Bar, The Bog as they were doing a Sunday Roast and we had really missed not having one since we left in May. So we had a BIG belly buster, a couple of pints and watched the local Rugby League (a perfect afternoon for my dad!!) it was after the alcohol that we really did start to tire. So we headed back to the hostal at 3pm, got into bed and slept until 7am this morning!! We both feel much better for it.

Obviously we haven't seen a great deal yet so theres not a lot to tell you, we get our Camper on Wednesday and were heading straight off up to The Bay Of Island, where the beaches are superb (90 miles long) it is also a couple of degrees warmer "Up North" The weather is much milder than Argentina (which was freezing!) but it is only Spring here so were not expecting any heat waves, we will have to wait for Fiji for the beach wear to come out.

We wont be blogging as regular in NZ as most of the time we will be on the road and hopefully in the middle of nowhere, and obviously because were not in hostals there will be no free internet. I know this Camper Van we've hired is a good one with all mod cons but I don't think it included internet access!