So... we uploaded an entry that seems to have got lost so to get you up to speed really quickly - we arrived in Auckland a couple of weeks ago, and spent a few days enjoying ourselves looking round. Visited Devonport which is a nice village across the harbour, then decided rather than working in Auckland we would head south and see what happened. We got a lift with a guy called Iain who is a student from Edinburgh over here for the snow and with him we travelled to Coromandel peninsula - which was amazing scenery and lovely weather... ha ha... it pee-ed itdown for a bit, but cleared up for our coastal drives! Next stop Rotorua where we viewed the very cool lava pools of bubbling mud and enjoyed hot spa pools and lots of NZ tv. Then to Napier which is on the east coast - great art deco buildings and a lovely health food shop - v important, and then to WEllington. In the capital the weather was fairly shocking, but we made up for this by having 3 nights out in a row - marvellous!

at this point it is worth mentioning that a lot of the time we haven't a clue what these kiwi's are going on about. mostly due to poor vowel discipline, just cos a word is spelt with an "I" do not expect to hear an eye sound. in fact I's tend to be E's or sometimes U's, E's are I's A's can be I's as well or E's, O's are wild. it's like a complicated card game. anyway we entererd a pub quiz and immediately started regreting it as we thought we were about to be subject to 8 rounds of tin questions, "anyone know anything about tin?" luckily they ment ten questions, and the bar it took place in was called Shooters and not the rather ruder version it sounded like. We came third in the pub quiz which is pretty good as we know nothing about NZ politics, we also won a round of drinks for having the best team name (the quiz team aguilera joke had not previously hit "in zid") ahd a wicked night seeing a magician, some pretty ropey bands and some burlesque dancers who did all manner of things with candles....and now we're in Blenheim. I'll write more later.

later is now! ha

Blenheim is not much of a town but it does have about 40 vineyards where at this time of year it is time to prune and wrap, so there is plenty of casual work around.

x