Well,I know its been a while, I've have been ensconsed in sunny Nelson, the place with the most sunshine hours in New Zealand, for the last 2 months living in The Palace, the best hostel in the whole country! (honestly, its amazing, crazy, colourful , sparkly chandaliered and generally wonderful- take a peek at thier new website, my friend Saskia has just given it a sparkly new look....I'm not on comission I promise)

I've had the best time, met so many people, learnt a smattering of german (see the apples later), eaten lots of crazy food dishes from around the world and learnt how to play Poker. Beware!

Unsurprisingly, the world of work for monetary gain has come a-knocking for the last 2 months- I've dabbled in apple picking (fab- always remember Braeburns 40% colour and even composed my own German apple picking song- really its quite enhanting), vineyard work (pruning and stripping, the latter not as well paid as you'd think ;-) ) and office work (know more about gas and home made kiwi Pav & cakes- yum!)

Further excitements have included going paragliding 'yes just run off the edge of the cliff..." and spending a day with an animal homepath (and her crazy Poodles) Next excitements include Melboune on the 11th July and indeed the bus jouney itself to Christchurch!

My birthday yesterday was lovely-all the crazy peeps at the hostel baked me cakes with candles, decorated the Hostel with balloons and streamers and sang Happy Birthday and also agreed to wear fancy dress hats for my party (hats included fluffy clogs, arty balloon and pipe cleaner ensembles, my rat heaven for Vincent the rat )- and eat vast quantities of aforementionned food and crazy German 'Mud Bowl' (delicious but lethal concoction with icecream, vodka and champagne) And it was truely international with Germans, Dutch, British, American and Aussies!

The Palace has been like a home away from home and I will be very sad to leave. Still, more adventures await in Australia......