We haven't written this for quite a while so here's an update of our time in New Zealand and the East coast of Oz. We set off from Melbourne in Mitzi who was to be our home and transport for the next few months. Mitzi is not a luxury campervan, really just a van with a double bed in the back. We hadn't really appreciated how dark it gets in winter, even in Australia. This isn't usually a problem when you have a living room or electricity but when you have to spend your waking hours outside you really notice it. So lots of early nights ahead. We made our way up the east coast at a fairly leisurely pace, never driving more than a few hours at a time. There are lots of great national parks on the way up where you can stay very cheaply and also get very close to wildlife. At Wilson's prom wombats attacked the van during the night trying to get to our food. We had our first encounter with kangaroos at a place called depot beach where they would hop up and watch you as you cooked your dinner. We also stopped at all the big tourist destinations like Byron Bay, Noosa, Surfers Paradise, Fraser Island. We managed to meet up with a lot of people on Fraser Island who luckily were all in the same place at the same time. Not that we were getting tired of each other after a month and a half in a confined space but it was nice to see a few other faces. Fraser Island is a huge sand island covered in rainforest. The only way to get around is in 4x4s so we left the van behind and went around on a tour bus. After Fraser Island we headed up to Bundaberg. Kate had been offered a job there for five weeks so it seemed like a good place to stop for a while and earn a bit of cash. I half heartedly looked for some fruit picking work while I was there without success. It seems the farmers and the hostels have some kind of arrangement where you have to stay in the hostel to get a job and they take half your wages for the privelage. So Kate worked away and I cooked and cleaned and joined the library for free internet and books. Not much happens in Bundaberg so it was a good place to stop off and earn some money as there was nothing to spend money on. The campsite was very cheap to stay in which attracted a high class clientelle. Our immediate neighbour Carl had no teeth and ran children's pony rides in a fair. There was also a guy who had very loud conversations with himself in the shower. But the time passed quite quickly and we left with a bit more cash for our onward travels.

We then headed off to New Zealand to meet up with kate's brother Colin and her friend Grainne. Our first stop in New Zealand was Auckland, the weather was a shock to the system. We hired a car to begin a road trip, we made it to the very north of north and the very south of south island stopping at many places enroute. Some of the highlights were Bay of Islands where we did a tour to Cape Reinga (it was such a highlight due to hughie our bus driver), we went caving which invovled abseiling through dark crevasses and flying foxing across gorges. We went to Rotorua, the thermal capital of NZ which had a distinct eggy smell, where we luged down the side of a mountain. We also managed to do some thermal 'eggsploring' and see lady knox guyser erupt. Next stop was Taupo where swam in a hot river, it was a strange experince as the water is as hot as your bath and just pouring out of a hill. We then went skiing in the shadow of Mount Doom, ski resort was called whakapapa but pronounced fakapapa so many a laugh was had. We said goodbye to Colin in Wellington, afther sampiling the hidden bars of the city.

Me, Kate and Grainne then headed for south island, first stop was Nelson, where we stayed in a hostel that gave you free hot chocolate puddings every evening! We did a trip to Abel Tasman National Park where we partook in some tramping (that's hiking to me and you). Saw spectacluar scenery but was just the start of the amazing landscape of New Zealand. We went wine tasting in the Marlborugh wine district, fishing in Kaikoura (with captain nick who only had 2 fingers and 1 leg, the cosequence of a fight with a great white shark), caught lots of fish including 2 sharks and a crayfish! We then headed over to the glacier region of the west coast, stopping enroute at the Monteiths Brewery where we did a tour which culminated in 30 minutes at the end with a free bar, you could pour yourself as may beers as you could drink in that time! Fox Glacier was a highlight of the trip, after 2 days the clouds cleared and the rain stopped allowing us to hike on the glacier, max took the poor mans route and hiked up where kate and grainne took a helicopter ride to the summit then walked though ice caves and crevasses.

We visited numerous other beautiful places including wanaka, queenstown, milford sound and akaora.

After stopping in Christchurch we headed back to Australia where the weather was glorious.

We picked up Mitzi from the campsite but after almost eight weeks parked in the heat she wasn't that keen to start. A quick jump start later and we underway. We visited a national park and saw some platypuses (or is that platipi?) swimming in the river near our campsite. We also caught a ferry over to magnetic island where we rented scooters for the day and both decided we wanted to buy one when we get home. We went on a sailing trip round the Whitsunday islands, which are a large group of islands at the southern end of the great barrier reef. Lots of snorkelling over the reef and Kate did her first dive as well. Back on the mainland we carried on heading north to Cairns. We had allowed ourselves two weeks to sell the van in Cairns but it turned out there are no vans for sale there and lots of people looking for them. So within a day of getting there we had three offers for it and decided to sell it to a French couple for the same price we had bought it for five months before. They didn't want to buy it immediately so we took one last trip up to the Daintree Rainforest which is about as far north as you can drive without a 4x4. Spent the last few days in Oz enjoying the sun and a day or two seeing the sights of Sydney. We are now back in South America so will try to update more regularly.