Regular readers of this blog may recently have wondered where the intrepid travellers had disappeared to, with rumours starting to circulate that:

- they had been taken hostage by Orks and carried back to Middle Earth
- whilst investigating local volcanoes they had fallen in one, never to be seen again
- they were having to much fun to find the time to write

and even;

- Jue had been kidnapped by local kiwi rugby players and forced into a life of giving their legs massages after each training session and match (however, this was a rumour spread by Jue to try and drum up some interest – instead she has been left tending to the poorly feet of her own fella!! (read more about this below))

Fortunately (or unfortunately in the case of rumour 3) none of these rumours are true and we are still alive and kicking in Auckland.

The last few weeks have seen a fairly standard routine develop, of arising stupidly early for work (at least by our standards 6AM is stupid), battling through the boredom that is a job before relaxing in the evenings with our fellow hostel friends.

The benefits of this are that the savings accrued have allowed us to delve into the murky world of second / ninth hand motor vehicles and consequently seen us become the proud owners of Bindi-Sue our very own rather large station wagon for the huge sum of 750 quid!!!

Now, ordinarily this would be considered swapping money for a tin can without wheels or even an engine. However, in New Zealand having a lovely shiny new top of the range car is considered as desirable as having your lungs removed and sky diving without the parachute. The number of dents, holes, missing bits of bumper on your car is seen as a status symbol and as such ensures that getting cheap old cars is nice and easy for money conscious travellers. Bindi-Sue is a beautiful 1993 Mazda 626, 2 litre, white station wagon, complete with manual windows, tape player and the essential fold flat rear seats with mattress, duvet, curtains and carrying a gas stove with all pots and pans. A bargain I’m sure you would all agree. Pictures of said vehicle are available to view in our latest photo collection.

We have since taken BS out on a few drives and despite some early morning / cold affected shaking, she drives very well and we’re very hopeful she’ll be seeing the whole of NZ with us over the next 7 months. Not to mention providing cost effective accommodation when we’re in some of the more remote locations.

The last couple of weekends have seen me take on the local sportsmen, with Jue being an enthusiastic spectator. I have managed to record a highly respectable 2nd place finish in a 5km race with a new personal best to boot and also starred for the less than impressive Ellerslie FC in a hard fought (literally in some players cases) 1-0 win. However, the price paid for this action has been a HUGE blister which managed to develop and be rubbed off all in the space of the 2nd half, due to some ill fitting borrowed boots, leaving me with about a 1inch red raw patch on my big toe, owwww!!! (if anyone would like to see pictures of this life-threatening injury they can be made available upon request. Also, if anyone wishes to send get well soon cards and choccies it would be much appreciated)

On the job front, our current contracts end this Friday, however I have (reluctantly) agreed to join the realms of PwC NZ (and will shortly be wishing option 1 was true!) due to the promise of a regular income until xmas. Jue will be unemployed and job seeking if I can pull her away from the local CEROC group and surrounding farms inhabited by millions of horses! As a result, this Saturday, we will be packing up Bindi-Sue and moving 4 hours south west of Auckland to a smallish town called New Plymouth (approx 75,000 pop). Rumour has it that it is small, cold but very pretty and relaxed so we shall see when we get there! On a positive note, we do have a week off next week so have decided to hit the slopes of Mount Ruapehu (an extremely active volcano which is currently covered in snow, although still smoking!!!). Yes we are going to ski! We'll let you know how that goes and if any further choccies are required for new injuries!

We would also just like to thank all of you for keeping us posted on your local weather it is really heart warming to know you are all out relaxing in the sun and enjoying BBQs in the current heatwave whilst here it has been raining for 3 days, and its cold and wintery... just so you know! ;o)

Enjoy the summer everyone, we'll write again soon...brrrrr