Kia ora!Hi everyone!

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all - hope you all had a holly jolly time. We have been in a bit lazy and not said hello for a while because we've been in luxury! A house, with a clean bed, and our own washing machine - it's all too much! So we last said hello from Franz Joseph Glacier - we spent 3 nights there. On Christmas eve we walked through the "bush" -more like rain forest- on the long route round to the glacier, it took about 4 hours and was amazing, a real fairy tale world where you expected a goblin or a hobbit on the road in front of you! The Glacier is stunning; it looks like a white river coming down out the mountains with lots of lumps and bumps in it!

On Christmas day we went back to the glacier (this time in a car) to a viewpoint to see it better. Didn't get onto it but still made for a white Christmas! Mum, Kezz and I had bought each other lots of little prezzies so we had a great morning in our wee room opening them all, then at 3pm the backpackers in the town (which are all on 1 of the 2 streets) had a barbeque for everyone. They shut off the road with a bus, laid out tables and chairs and dragged out 6 bbqs into the middle of the road! There were about 300 people there, we all got fed (amazing meats, veggies, kebabs, pastas, breads and homemade punch!) as much as we wanted and it was all free of charge! A great party and a lovely way to spend Christmas - in our shorts and t-shirts having a bbq in the street!!

On boxing day we left the little glacier town and went north to Westport, long drive, lovely scenery which included the pancake rocks - a rock formation that looks like lots of pancakes lying on top of each other - there were blow holes through them where water sprayed up at high tide through the rocks. We also stopped at some of the Nelson lakes, huge expanses of freshwater with mountains everywhere, really pretty. As its summer holiday time here, there were lots of people were out on boats and water skiing, some really nice boats, Kezz had a good drool!Westport wasn't that exciting - a small grid system town with a friendly backpackers and a Chinese takeaway for dinner. Spent some time that night with Chrystine in the local medical centre getting her antibiotics for an infected foot - lovely! The foot was infected because of sand flies - you think we've got it bad with midges!! These blinking things bite you and for 3 or 4 days the bite is really itchy, wee b*****s!

From Westport to Nelson - a small city about the size of Stirling. Lots of good shops and an amazing beach. The sun was shining when we got there and we had a cracking dinner in "bar delicious". We stayed two nights in nelson - went to the beach, did some shopping and went to a museum which incorporates old classic cars and the world of wearable art - where artists design costumes for a big competition and they are shown in the museum. That was really good.Then we left Nelson and headed to Blenheim, mum getting more and more excited on the drive in! The drive that day was incredible - proper mountain passes and lovely empty valleys. Blenheim is another town on a grid and mums world, Redwood is about ten minutes walk from the town centre. The surgery is there as is the house we're all staying in - 'Nanas house'. Ok so the story of Nana's house goes like this: Chrystine's boss at work over here is a man called Jim whose wife Ruth also works at the surgery. They have a dream house up on a hill just outside the town but Jim's mum (aka Nana) had a small bungalow in the town. They have kept this on after she passed away for medical students (who will be working at the practice) to live in.They have been kind enough to let mum stay here for a bit and we're just borrowing a room for a week! Nice wee house if not still slightly old ladyish - still has some of her things but she seemed like a really lovely person who was into things like spinning and crafts.

Since we got into Blenheim 4 days ago, we've been making our way round Chrystine's friends, eating and drinking and putting the world to rights. Ruth and Jim (the couple that own nanas house) have been great. Their house is incredible - just finished in August, it looks out onto the vineyards around Blenheim with the Richmond mountain range behind it. They have 2 boys in their 20s who have been a good laugh and also have wireless internet in the house that we have made good use of!Mum also has a crazy friend called Donna who is a nurse and is full of nonsense (She's a New Zealand version of Margaret Mckelvie for those that know who that is!)She has a daughter in her 20s so we've been having jolly drunken nights with them as well.

The highlight of all the people we've been introduced to is an old lady in her 80s called Peach. She lives in a big house, rents out the rooms to students and is as sharp as a knife. Peach is an artist and is opening an exhibition in a few weeks time IN HER 80s! She is wonderful, drives one of those scooter things and would put a boy racer in a Subaru to shame! Peach is one of those people that will at random tell you amazing stories about her life, like the time she spent 6 months on a Russian sailing boat or when she went travelling in Indonesia two years ago! She is trying to persuade mum to meet her in the Philippines whilst she is over doing some charity work - the woman will outlive us all! A real character and a highlight of our trip!

The other great thing we've done in Blenheim was to apply for our open water scuba diving certificates! Argh! It was expensive but much cheaper than it would have been at home and it means we can dive in Australia (hopefully at the Great Barrier Reef but let's not get too excited!). So basically we pay some money, we have a huge thick textbook to learn and we have two days in a swimming pool and two days out in the Marlborough Sounds doing open water diving (the Sounds are like lochs with bigger hills at either side). So far Kezzy and I have loved it - we're about half way through the book and spent today (Friday the 2nd of Jan) doing our first day in the pool. There is so much to learn - the wetsuit, flippers, snorkeletc are easy peasy but then you have weights tied to you, a jacket that you can fill with air for buoyancy, lots of k*** and dials to learn about and all the carry on with air tanks and respirators! Well worth it though, we spent a couple of hours learning things like taking your mask off, or running out of oxygen and learning to swim with so much bulk to you! But the best bit was half an hour at the end, in the deep section of the pool (a diving pool, so a good few metres down) just being that far down for so long, doing tumbles and hand stands and messing around - was brilliant fun.

The instructor is a lovely local called Sarah who was a great laugh and really sweet. Also it was only us 2 and one other girl so we had the whole place to ourselves. Can't wait for the next bit!

I think the only other exciting thing was New Year. We went to one of the other doctor's houses - a huge mansion of a place with swimming pool, forest and the most amazing interior - it was like grand designs had been filming the place. Penny (the wife) is the doctor and her husband, Tony owns a company that repairs antique planes - he works a lot for Peter Jackson (the man behind lord of the rings films) who has a huge collection of old planes. So the house was really cool and we knew a lot of the people there from the parties in the days before hand so it was a lovely homely atmosphere.

Anyway, I have blethered enough for the time being. We are still having a jolly time, we're here till the 6th doing some of the diving then North Island for a week (keeping the hired car with us -mums been given a car for here, people are far too nice . . . have a house . . . hey, have a car too!), then returning on the 13th to do the rest of the diving.

Money lasting well, health is tip top, weight going neither up nor down (the foods way too good here to try and diet!)

To Popalopidus - hope New York was wonderful and I can't believe they still have real camels in 5th avenue!!

To Granny Helen - I've been told that you are getting to read our blogs so hello to you in sunny Lochgilphead, hope you didn't get too drunk at New Year (ha ha!) miss you lots Granny x x

To Lewis and Skye - We're sorry we weren't there for Christmas, hope you had a wonderful time and that Santa was good to you both.

To Allan - hope the air in the study has cleared ;-)

To Lawrence Lister- thank you for your wonderful messages, hope you had a great christmas and didnt get too drunk with granny! x x

Lots of love Mo and Kezz x x x x