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 cab...

We've had a wk of adventures, the biggest challenge the best "walk" in New Zealand -the tongoriro crossing. However, when faced with a strong south westerley wind and meeting snow and ice at the top it was more like a mountain climb -one fellow hiker even got his ice pick out -we skirted on round him in our haste to get to the top. However judging by the no. of times we slipped over this was not the wisest move expecially when the cloud cleared to reveal steep dr...

Greetings everybody! You'll be glad to know that we've found a place with decent technology and have uploaded some of our NZ photos. So please feel free to peruse at your leisure and apologies to those of you who've been waiting so long for an update!! We've made our way to the centre of North Island and have adopted the saying - "let's do it" whenever faced with a kiwi challenge. You've heard about the black water rafting, well now we've completed a white water ...

Freezing our butts off down under. We're unhappy with the weather and lack of USB technology now we've got our heads round our new camera. We're flabagasted to find the kiwis so behind.........can't find a decent computer to upload photos...... please be patient for those scenic shots they don't come out well in the rain. We're happy enough in mindy, playing draughts, chess, cards, eye spy and occ strip poker (when Ed's had enough red wine)................ t...

Hello from New Zealand. Yes we've made it after our adventures in Vietnam and are getting used to the change in climate and also cramped conditions of our home for the next two weeks which is a two person camper van that we've christened Mindy for no particular reason. Rolled round some hills and made it up to the Bay of Islands. Went for a cruise around them and were lucky enough to encounter a pod of dolphins. Woke up this morning to rain- which was a shame as ...