We apologise for the lack of update just recently but as you all know, Sasha's sister, Hayley, had an accident at home which meant that we had to change our plans slightly to get to Sydney to support both her and her fiancé Gary. As it has been six weeks since our last blog post, we are going to do this in two parts! This update will be our last couple of weeks in New Zealand, and then we will tell you about how we have been getting on since hitting Oz soil!

So . . we actually need to take you all the way back to 15th March in Queenstown, which of course was Sasha's birthday! We awoke to a lovely surprise from Anna and Tom waiting outside our camper, they had created a little birthday display with a birthday banner, card and a bottle of cider!! As we are both early risers, Anna had had to set her alarm to ensure that she could set it all up before we woke up, and then she could crawl back into bed. After breakfast we had to say our final goodbyes to Anna and Tom as they were due to travel on to Dunedin and Christchurch to fly to Oz on 22nd, and we were going to be heading South after a couple more days in Queenstown. As a Birthday treat we decided to head to the cinema and watch The Kings Speech, which was fantastic! And then we treated ourselves further to lunch out! Well you can't really have noodle sandwiches for you birthday now can you?!!

With three more nights planned in Queenstown, we knew we would have to move on from the very nice campsite we had been at with Anna and Tom as the cost was just too much, and so the plan was to head to a campsite run by the local council in Arrowtown, that Sasha had read all about and had told everyone she had seen when travelling to Queenstown! Nicely full from lunch we headed off to find the campsite. Within minutes of driving out of town, Sasha soon becomes a little jittery about the fact that Arrowtown is not in the direction of the area we had come through on the way to Queenstown, and so which a quick search through Lonely Planet she realises that it was Albert Town that she had seen and read about, not Arrowtown!! Albert Town being 61 km away from Arrowtown! So back we head to Queenstown and to a half-finished DOC site on the edge of the lake.

With two nights spent at this site with no access to a shower, and knowing that we were going to be dinner guests at a school friend of Ollie's, we sought out the local swimming pool to use the pool, spa and of course the showers!! We then headed to the beautiful town of Arrowtown and the fantastic Chinese gold mining settlement that has been partially restored. And then it was onto George and Grant's house, with their fabulously brave little dog, Dave! Who after an eager jump from a moving van was now walking on only 3 legs. Ollie and George went to school together back in Stowmarket and so an excellent evening was spent reminiscing and updating each other on all the gossip back home! And of course we were totally spoilt with a home cooked meal and a proper bed for the night! Bliss!

The next morning and it was back on the road and a drive down to Invercargill, where the weather very much took a turn for the worse, and we were hit by an almighty storm, which gave us miserable weather for a few days and so we spent a very limited time on the South coast driving through the Catlins, and instead headed on up to Dunedin for Ollie's birthday, where we treated ourselves to much wine, Chinese and cake!!

From the Scottish town of Dunedin we headed on up the coast to the amazing Moeraki Boulders. Giant boulders that look extremely alien like, and are scattered right across the beach, up to 2 metres in diameter! And then heading on and through Oamaru and Timaru to Christchurch.

Our plan had been to try and do some volunteering work in Christchurch, but as all the rescue work had already been undertaken, the city was going through a assessment stage to establish what restoration work was needed. This meant that they did not require any assistance outside of those experts brought in to do that work, as well as the already established volunteers distributing aid to those affected by the earthquake. So, instead we used the time to reboot and plan the rest of our time in New Zealand. But what a fantastic decision it was of ours to stay at a campsite near the airport! Over our two night stay at the site we managed to "acquire" ‎12 packets of spicy beef noodles, 3 packets of plain noodles, 1/2 can of fly spray, 3 bog rolls, 1/5 of a bottle of washing up liquid, a hardly used bottle of washing detergent, 3 onions, a bulb of garlic, a bag of muesli, a bag of raisins, 1/2 a bottle of lemon juice, 1/3 of a pot of illy coffee, Chilli and Lime seasoning, Mixed herbs, 1/2 a box of porridge, a jar of crushed chillis, Italian herbs, Rock salt and peppercorns in their own grinders, a full bottle of Heinz Ketchup, tomato and onion soup, 1/2 a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette, 4 wraps, 1/4 bag of Robert Harris coffee, 1/2 a salami, baked beans, whole-wheat spaghetti, half a bag of pasta shells, a jar of peanut butter, peach and mango chutney, a jar each of nutella and honey, Oregano, crackers, Philadelphia, dairylea (three triangles), 10 cheese slices, two partially used bottles of shower gel, 1/5 bottle of shampoo, and a full bottle of conditioner!!Bit of a result hey??!!

Whilst in Christchurch we managed to get close to the centre and see some of the devastation the earthquake had caused. It was truly awful to see how some buildings had been totally destroyed, and even more distressing to see those buildings that had been destroyed that had been people's homes! During our time on the South Island we came across a number of people that had had to flee their homes in Christchurch and were living a life in limbo, mostly spent in campsites with very few of their possessions!

From Christchurch, and the bizarre feeling of the aftershocks that we felt, we headed on up to Kaikoura for a few nights at a free campsite, where it soon became apparent that our neighbour at the campsite was a hunter, and that sharing his caravan along with his wife, was a deer carcass!!

Waking one morning to snow on the mountains that had been clear the day before we knew it was time to start making our way back to the warmer North Island, and so off we headed to Picton to book our ferry across to Wellington.

Back over in the lovely North Island, and in the very cosmopolitan city of Wellington we thoughly enjoyed a trip to the Weta Cave. Well, when we say we, we actually only means Ollie here!! Of course it was a bit of a geek out time, and a chance to see some of the amazing models created by the company for films such as Lord of the Rings, Avatar, District 9, and many many more! Yep, meant nothing to Sasha!!! But we also headed to the fantastic free museum of Te Papa with their amazing interactive displays.

Then on Friday 1st April, came the distressing facebook message from Anna, asking us to contact Gary urgently! Knowing that something must have happened to Hayley, we did a desperate search of the town we were staying in to find a phone box and make the call to find that Hayley had had a serious accident at home that had meant that she had been taken into hospital with burns to her arms and legs, and was going to be put into a coma for two to three days! In Gary's distressed state he was unable to find ways of contacting any of Hayley's family and so we are unbelievably thankful to that fact that we put Anna and Tom in touch with Hayley and Gary so that Tom could get some work while staying in Sydney! So after a very difficult phone call back home to the UK to Sasha's mum, lots of tears and wine, a decision was made that we needed to get to Sydney as soon as we possibly could!

So the next day we awoke very early to start our nine hour journey from just outside Wellington all the way back to Auckland to see when we could catch a flight over. Stopping half way in Taupo we made the call to Emirates to change the flight from 1st May to the very next evening, which would mean that we would arrive in Sydney before Hayley was woken up, and we could be there to help her and Gary with whatever they needed from us!

A night spent in a campsite near to Auckland Airport meant that we could freeload all the shopping that we had done just two days before to other travellers(well, only the stuff that was open or couldn't fit in our bags!!), clean the van, and pack our bags. Then it was time to return the van and head off to the airport for the short flight across the ditch to Sydney.

Which is of course where we have been for the past three weeks. But the long and hard going story of those weeks will be saved from you for a few more days!