Technicalities first... the pic is of Wellington not Christchurch because we have only just arrived here in Christchurch. Sorry :-)

Right... so....What have we been up to? Well we drove from Lake Taupo to Wellington in a day, didn't quite mean to but we were going well and the next thing we knew we were in Wellington. It took about 7 hours and the contrast in the landscape from one place to the other was immense!! One minute we were surrounded by volcanoes, the next...farmland, then the DESERT!!! and I mean real desert, the road was called "desert road"! There was also a massive snow capped mountain which was strange as it was so boiling!! By the time we got to Wellington there was no room at the inn so to speak, so we headed out of Wellington and into a place called "Upper Hutt" (Hutt Valley). By this time we were exhausted and starving and willing to pay ANY price to get a good nights sleep. After about 30 minutes driving (in storm force rain, a bit different to 3 hours ago) from Wellington we arrived at Upper Hutt holiday park, and were ...to find that they not only had all the facilities we needed for free (washing, hot showers, kitchen etc...) which you usally have to pay extra for, it was $6 cheaper than most places we have stayed. This was the start of a lucky streak we were soon to discover! The following day we changed the date of our ferry crossing to the South Island from the 31st to tomorrow. We also met a Dutch brother and sister. Liam says they do like a "shmoke and a pancake"! ANYWAY...(lol), Martin and Sandra, we got chatting and they have done a LOT of travelling, on and off for 8 years I think it was. He works with computers so can pretty much work anywhere in the world because his laptop is his office, LUCKY BA$TARD!! Thanks for that $. Anyway...we shared the movies and series' we had on our Ipods as we wanted Die Hard 1 as I messed that up when I was putting them on there before we left and we ended up with Die Hard 3 twice! They wanted 2 and 4.0 so we struck a deal! We got everything they had (20 films and series 1 of heroes and series 1 of house), and we gave them the 2 Die Hards, and the few Friends I had on there sealed the deal :-) About that... how addicted are we to heroes!! Put it this way we have had it 3 full days and we have only 3 episodes left to watch out of 23!! lol. The day we met them it was "raining" to put it VERY mildly, which is why we were talking to them so much. Really nice people, we all sat and watched Die Hard 4.0 in the kitchen. Little did we know that our tent was slowly (well maybe not so slowly) filling up with water, drowning our belongings (luckilly nothing important, just sleeping bags and some clothes). When we discovered the wreckage it was still raining, and it was a task and a half to get everything dry-ish. Spent the night in a damp tent with a new neighbour who snored soooo loudly all night. Needless to say I didnt sleep much, Liam did lucky git! Next morning we were up at the crack of dawn, but not early enough because we almost didnt get on the ferry as we left a little late getting up due to the lack of sleep. Raced through the rush hour traffic, last checkin was 7.25am and we arrived there at 7.45am and luckilly they were still boarding cars. I, as far as I can remember, have never been sea sick, but God that changed on this ferry trip!! Liam said I went green literally! Pretty uneventful really, which is why we ended up getting hooked on heroes as there wasn't much else to do. We arrived at picton, travelling through the sounds (they're Fiords but slightly different), they were stunning; we got some photos. We headed along the east coast, which was full of vineyards and mountains. We made our way to another DOC (Dep of Cons..) campsite, which was on Marfells Beach which was just north of Cape Campbell (Shani thats for you, it's the first peninsular on the way down the east coast). It was absolutely amazing (stunning just doesn't cut), we have some pictures. We were basically camping on the beach. We left the front door of our tent open most of the night because the view was incredible. We set off nice and early again the next day, oh and did we have fun today!!! At this point our luck has run out. First of all, we were driving along a beautiful pacific ocean coastline. We have pictures do not fear :-), decided to stop for a bite to eat in this picturesque location. Liam decides it will be FINE to drive up over the hill so we can see the ocean from our car, 5 metres in, we realised it wasn't such a good idea. We were stuck in very soft sand up to the bumper. great!! I know there are worse places to be stranded but after the mornings events we weren't best pleased. So under popular demand, and because it had been his suggestion, Liam volunteered to push while I reversed, to no avail. So he suggested we dig the tyres out, so he had me on my knees in the sand, digging, I was not impressed! But it helped and we got out alive! (Liam here, i feel like bl00dy Ray Mears, first the fire now getting us out of quicksand, i am a survival god.)Although our lunch then tasted of sand but oh well, nothing wrong with a bit of crunch. Liam drove around a bit (off road this time, don't panic parents). Because of his antics we went to get petrol as we were on a quarter of a tank but they were charging 10 cents more per litre that everywhere else, so we thought there is bound to be another down the road as there has been previously. How wrong were we?! Try driving through the mountains, when the red light is on and has been for a LONG time, with no civilisation to be seen, in 5th gear up hills, trying to conserve petrol. It didn't make us a lot of friends; people were overtaking us angrilly at our snail-like pace, even the campervan that the pushbikes were overtaking overtook US!! Oh the shame!! Tragedy over we did make it to a petrol station and paid over the odds anyway, although not as much as the first place though so we did the right thing. Liam said "lesson to be learnt-don't give in to the ba$tards"! I on the other hand was petrified at the thought of being stuck in the peak of the day heat in the middle of nowhere, on a mountain. We drove for a couple of hours longer and found Waipara Sleepers, and what a great find it was! It was old train carriages converted into cabins, and we stayed there in our tent. Our luck returned as it was only $15 for both of us and all amenities included in the price like the previous place. It was quirky and they had a dog and 3 pet cats, one of which became quite attached to us. I miss Tigger though :-( don't tell him mom he'll be jealous! We met Micks (aka Hollyfields groundsman) long lost brother, not lookswise, but his personality was very similar, a very nice man. Talking of the locals; we met a NZ man who was very eerilly John (JD) but about 10 years older; very wierd how their mannerisms were identical. But unlike JD, he was a right nause, nice man but talked us to death and everyone he met. It didn't matter how little English they spoke, they wouldn't get off lightly. He was just interested in all the travellers and learning about their lives, we were just exhausted and didnt feel that chatty that's all. Next day we had a very lazy day, caught up on our new hobby (heroes), charging the Ipod at every opportunity lol. Today I got up for 8am just in time for the complementary freshly baked bread (there were meant to be freshly laid eggs too but the chickens didn't give out unfortunately). It was scrumptious! Liam stayed in bed, he missed out, although he didn't have to talk to "the talker" as we now called him so maybe he didn't. We set out this morning towards Christchurch and have paid a fortune in multistory car parks! But have been watching the 'World Busking Festival" which has been great fun. We have seen all sorts... sword swallowing, a human knot (a contortionist who got his body through a tennis raquet, squash raquet, and toilet seat all at the same time in different directions), tap/justin timberlake style dancing to rap music, various juggling, acrobatics, and the most amazing pianoplayer who played on his floor piano by throwing juggling balls at the keys from above. We had a video and we will try to put it on here eventually. Oh and we keep forgetting to mention that at Burger King here you can get a deal called a "summer stunner" which costs $5 (2.50 ish) and you get a junior whopper, small fries, a refillable drink and an icecream sundae of your choice. Bargain!! Also we have been getting lots of fruit from farms selling on the side of the road, beautiful!! Bon Jovi is on here tomorrow night and we are gutted that we can't afford to go. Boooo! But hey we are in NZ so can't complain :-) By the way, Liam is burnt again. Not too badly though, his arms are oddly patchy this time, kind of two tone aswell. I thought I had escaped but no I have a burnt forehead and scalp as I wasn't wearing my hat today. Anyway... That is about it for now... Hope you are all well and thanks for all of your messages, keep them coming, loads of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S. Theresa this is Liam, your daughter is right im afraid, it's awe, never mind you will get there in the end lol, probably when im back home, but better late than never xxxxxxxx