Greetings.....we've finally made it to south island and are currently in a backpackers hostel in sunny Picton trying to be young and hip by hanging with young backpackers!! - we're only here for the night as we pick up a car tomorrow and head off - so we don't have to pretend to be young for too long!! Since our last postcard we have enjoyed ourselves with Gail and Bas in Masterton. They looked after us and we really enjoyed the homely atmosphere of their log cabin. We expected a little r & r but in true Gail and Bas fashion they had all kinds of activities planned for us. These included the usual tramping (that's hiking in UK speak) and mountain biking escapades which were very good, although we are both getting a little saddle sore!! We also participated in a volleyball tournament (we won 3 and lost 2 - Ruth has a mean smash but usually ended up hitting me!), I also managed a few games of badminton and we took our maiden voyage on a tandem, I just wish Ruth could've stopped pinching my posterior on the way round! - but most importantly the activities included lots of good home cooking and plenty of vino! It was great just to relax in their guest house and just chill for a few nights after two weeks in the camper van. We also managed to partake in a traditional NZ Saturday night activity of watching the rugby on TV with plenty of lager and shouting at the ref. Again we have to apologise for lack of photos but now it seems the internet places we go to are reluctant to let people upload photos - it's starting to p*** us off but we will search high and low and will update very soon. We're very excited about the next two weeks in south island and hope the weather holds for us. Hope everyone is well. Love to you all Ed and Ruth xx