Hello everyone,

We just arrived in Christchurch earlier today after a fantastic week in the Cook Islands - paradise! Firstly I'd like to apologise for the lack of photos but I just spent 30 mins waiting for loads to upload before it said FAILED!! I'll try at a different internet cafe another time!

At the start of the week we rented a car and drove all the way around the island twice, stopping off at a waterfall where I jumped in to the rock pool and Lisa got attacked by a swarm of mosquitos! We saw the sunset on the other side of the island and had a really nice meal, followed by a night out in the centre - our most expensive day by far (and I must add at this point that Lisa did an excellent job of driving!)

Snorkeling was one of my favourite parts and I think it was Lisa's too, although she did have a mini-panic attack as the rocks were really close to the surface! We learned that kayaking in the wind is very tiring, swimming against the current is very tiring, any exercise in the sun is very tiring and we decided that it's best to just sit around and do very little!

It's currently 22:00 here on Tues 12th, but we woke up this morning at 5am on Mon 11th (the other side of the date line) so just lost a day, but generally the time changing hasn't affected us much - I've just stayed wide awake most of the time. It's now nice to be in a climate with fewer insects with biting/stinging capabilities - I only have 20 mosquito bites but Lisa has more than 70!! We woke up this morning with a milipede in the room which had just had 3 babies around our apartment!

We've met lots of really friendly people and will hopefully get to see more of them as we move around NZ and Aus. We're getting the Magic Bus in the morning which will take us around New Zealand for the next few weeks, so in the meantime I wish you all well!

Paul x