Happy Christmas and New Year everyone! Can not believe it is going to be 2006 soon! We are spending new year in Nelson, a supposedly happening town, it had better be as we have just given up the chance to be at a 3 day Drum and Bass rave in the hills to be here!! We would like to say a huge thank you to Gill and my mum and dad for the prezzys. Gill I haven't stopped wearing my tops they are perfect, neither has Dave. The sweets went down very well too! Mum and Dad the paints will be in use very soon, and the cards were used on Christmas day to play New Market with. Yep the tradition lives on! The nibbles were appreciated, good job John wasn't searched on the way over! We are glad you all liked your prezzys, chears for the pics of the family wearing them. You all look well and healthy, can't believe how well Granny looks! Any way on to the travel journal, I did do this the other day but as normal lost it!! Getting very fustrating now! After we last wrote in Wellington we had a little accident with our lovely van. Stuppidly thinking we could fit the van into a multi story we got under the barrier,(only a little scrap honest!), and decided to go up the slop to turn round, suddenly Dave started shouting 'STOP STOP' as I heard a loud crunch. Tones of filthy black liquid started pissing out of the roof, sirens started going off and lights flashing! I panicked 'what do we do, we're going to blow up', typical girl! We got out, covered in the liquid and looked at the damage. Turned out we (I) had managed to jam the van into the water pipes and set of the fire alarms, thus the liquid was just dirty water. Dave tried to get the wheels down as the fire brigade turned up, laughing and taking photos. Most embaressing moment ever? yep! We did eventually get it loose, 5 firemen on the front to weigh it down. We somehow got away with no damage to the pipes and only paint work to the van!!!! A little shaken we still got on the ferry to the South island to meet the others with our tales, oh how they laughed! To cool ourselves off we drove down to Kaikora on the East coast and went swimming with New Zealand fur seals!! The most wonderful experience, we were fully kitted up in hooded wet suits as the water was freezing, but so clear. The seals came right up to us, and we went into thier colony just watching them frollicking. Amazing it really was. From there we stopped off at Montana wine reserve for some free boose! Yep those of you All Bar one scum now the brand! And on to the North of the island to the national park of Abel Tasman where we spent Christmas. It was stunning, Golden bays, clear waters and lush green Mountains. Our campsite was right on the beach so we had fires everynight, even a little party on xmas day with some people we had met. Graemes birthday was lovely on xmas eve with bubbly in the morning, and xmas day we opened our wierd and wonderful secret santa, yes mine was leather crochless panties which Dave is moddeling in the pictures!!! Sorry kids! We even managed mince pies and a roast dinner! Boxing day we visited a place called Pu Pu springs, the clearest water in