So it's time once again, apologies for the 4 month hiatus, we're slowly getting back into the travelling vibe so we promise to keep her up to date. But day to day work in Wellington wasn't that exciting to write about. We'll fill you in below with what we got up to and some of our travel tails around New Zealand. Before we started work we did manage to get a road trip around the North Island with Phillippa which was great fun. We travelled to the Napier, did a bike tour around some wineries (unfortunately more biking than wine) in Hawkes Bay, went "black water" caving in Waitomo (basically floating through a cave, 300m below, on a tractor tyre tube) and went surfing in Raglan.

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and is a harbor city and it was our new home for 3 months. It's surrounded by hills so every walk involves at least one incline. The developers of the city surrounded it with Government parks to keep it from becoming a sprawling city. Mount Victoria is the main viewpoint just behind our flat, with sweeping vistas over the city and behind to the airport and the numerous bays. Due to New Zealand being part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the majority of houses are wooden panel board, to flex with any quakes. They say Wellington is due for a quake! Although since we've been here Christchurch was hit by a 7.4 quake and is still suffering from aftershocks 3 months on. Miraculously no one died, considering it was the same strength as the Haiti quake.

Kim began working for a great father, son, Dental practice, in the city centre where she was replacing Mr George Hunt Snr who was retiring at the ripe age of 73! She worked with a great bunch of people which made for a very different experience from Sydney. They will be missed and we wish them all the best in the future. I spent some time looking for Optom related work but drew a blank. It's been pretty frustrating not being able to work in my profession, but I accepted it and started applying for random jobs. I settled for a 2 month laboring contract. Something a little different! My job consisted of waiting for electric powered trolley buses and either pull their poles down from the mains or put them back up. Very exciting. Some spots where I "worked" may have had a bus every 30mins, so I read on average 2 novels a week and completed a 12 week Spanish course!

Being in the same city as Peter and Louise has been brilliant. Not just because of the free perks through Peters work (VIP box for the Rugby and Football, free drinks on the work account!), but to meet their friends in the southern hemisphere and to do a fare selection of socializing with them. We crashed on their sofa bed for the first 3 weeks in Wellington but found a flat share with a couple of Kiwis for the remainder. This worked out well and we often met up though the week or at the weekend. Our flatmates were great and staying in a fully stocked flat made a great difference compared with renting an unfurnished place as we did in Sydney.

Steven and Shanitta who have been mentioned throughout our blog arrived in Wellington a couple of days after us and it's been great to share the time here with them. They've been doing a similar trip to us, having just got married and went on an epic honeymoon. We used to meet when we were all unemployed and have a drink and a chat about job opportunities. Any excuse for a beer. But that soon changed to Friday night drinks after work. They introduced us to their Welsh friends, Andy and Jo and many a wild night has been spent in the infamous Welsh Bar (the only Welsh Bar in the Southern hemisphere!) So Mike the owner claims, awesome place.

New Zealand has a lot to offer and some of the weekend activities from Wellington have been skiing in Mt Ruapheu (staying in the smallest 4 bed dorm ever), exploring the multitude of cafes around Wellington and the surrounding bays. (More cafes per head than New York).A road trip to Castle Point Lighthouse(3hrs) with Any and Jo for fish and chips. Visiting Niki and Nigel (our cousins) in Waikanai, meeting their kids Molly and Jack. They gave us a tour of their plane and airstrip in their front yard. They live in a beautiful barn style house, nestled in the hills with lots of space for everyone's outdoor hobbies (horses, hunting, motocross!) We spent a great night with them in November, a "Pot luck night", where everyone brings a pot of food, and we got the guitars out for a jam. Another weekend was spent with them at Toast Martinborough, a wine festival with great live music.

When our work came to an end we organized a 2 week campervan trip around the south island. We travelled from Christchurch and did a 3000km circuit. Our campervan was a small Nissan Vanette, with a mattress in the back and not much space for our rucksacks. Not quite up to the space we had in our campervan in Oz. Highlights were seeing the little blue penguins come ashore in Oamaru. These little dudes are 30cm tall and swim in "rafts" of between 2 and 100 penguins. The waves sweep them ashore and they ramble up the rocks to their nests at dusk. In Dunedin we saw sea lions lazing on the beach and yellow eyed penguins in the rocks. Also a highlight here was Cadbury World….what a place; we got so much chocolate and got a tour through the factory. Next stop was Milford sounds over in Fjordland. The real highlight here was the drive, through stunning mountainous scenary and beautiful lakes. The trip on Milford Fjord was actually really grey and wet.

We stayed in Queenstown for a night and revisited a few pubs we had been to in the winter, and enjoyed another Ferg burger (probably the best burger in the world, really, worth a trip to NZ on its own). Our campsites varied and after Queenstown we stayed in Wanaka at a Department of Conservation site. These used to be free but are now looked after by the DOC so a small fee is paid. To be able to just park up beside a beautiful river or lake is a real part of the adventure. Really peaceful and relaxed. Every other night we stayed in some "Freedom" spots, where we just pulled over. Then we found a campsite for a much needed shower.

We stopped in with Jan and John Gilespie in Hokitika (my granny's brothers son) for a night and caught up with them. We tried the infamous "Whitebait Fritter". For those that don't know about this NZ delicacy, it consists of small white fishy things with beady eyes that swim up the rivers in Spring. They sell at up to 100$ a Kilo. John caught over 40Kg this year which is a poor year!

We did a heli hike at Franz Josef glacier, an amazing way to see the scale of this rare tropical glacier (1 of 3 in the world). We flew ¾ of the way up and then hiked for 2 hours. Not too strenuous but a real spectacle to see the blue ice glowing in the daylight and the various shapes and forms cast by the ice as it melts. It is up to 300m thick and up to 12Km long. It can advance up to 4m a day and a heavy snowfall in a season can be up to 30m.

Next on the adventure was a kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman National Park up north. We had planned a 2 day trip but bad weather sweeped in and cancelled all trips. When I say bad weather, I don't mean -18C and feet of snow, but a lot of rain and high winds. The next day however was a cracker and we got to kayak 11km of the coastline into various bays and even swimming with a seal. Because of the tail wind we were able to get our 4 kayaks together and pop up a sail and cruise along, much better than paddling.

As the weather fluctuated we hit a few wineries in Nelson and Blenheim and found the Founders Brewary which serves some great beers. Our last couple of days were spent in Marlbourgh Sounds and then at Gore Bay, beside Cheviot. This was a gem of a campsite, right by a beautiful stretch of coast.

Christmas was spent at Peter and Louises house in Roseneath. We had a great day and had a BBQ for lunch and then hit the beach just below their house. That was the first day that we had went for a swim in the sea since arriving, it's a similar temperature to home! Not like the bath tub temperatures in Thailand. Kim and Peter prepared a cracking ham and turkey and we all mucked in to prepare a food mountain of spuds and veg. It was a great success and the rest of the evening was spent playing drunken family fortunes.

On Boxing Day we headed north towards our Bach (holiday house) in Onemana, The Coromandel. On the 27th morning the 4 McKeowns (Me, Peter, Lousie and Kim), threw ourselves from a plane above lake Taupo at 15000ft…………………………….carzy. It took me about 20mins after the jump to find my stomach, the sharp turns in the parachute were tough but the jump was brilliant fun. We all really enjoyed the experience.

And now we're waiting for the sun to shine in Onemana. Our bach is 30m form the beach and is fully stocked with booze and food. Next stop Auckland and then onto Fiji.