Hello readers, this is just a very short update to let you know we are well and enjoying the truly spectacular surroundings of New Zealand's South Island. We will be adding a fe more entries to describe our trip so far but internet access is not as easy (and cheap) as South America so we will be doing it bit by bit.

However, not to deprive you of your regular fix we have updated the photo album and here is a brief summary of what we've been up to, you can assume everywhere we have been has been breath takingly beautiful to save on the word count below.

We arrived in Christchurch on the 19th October and picked up our campervan, who has since been christened Muriel. We headed north along the east coast and after camoing at a couple of quiet beaches we hit the Marlborough sounds where we stayed, enjoying the scenery, for a few days. We then headed west to the Abel Tasman National Park and Golden Bay for some more exploring and a bit of sea kayaking in Abel Tasman. Afetr a detour to buy yet another camera (don't ask) we started off our drive down the spectacular West Coast, visting the Punakaiki pancake rocks, Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers and the truly truly breathtaking Lake Matheson before crossing the Haast pass and heading inland.

We have mainly been staying in basic campsites or pulling over into laybays near the beach etc but in need of some creature comforts (and a place to watch the derby) we have checked into a fully serviced campsite for the night in the town on Wanaka having taken yet another scenic drive alongside Lakes Wanaka and Hawea (latter above). We are going to spend today washing and eating crumpets which have been sat in Muriel since Christchurch as we have sought the electricty to plug our toaster in - STOP THE PRESS: THE CRUMPETS WERE MOULDY, I REPEAT THE CRUMPETS WERE MOULDY.

We still have much more of this beautiful country to see and much more Kiwi radio to listen to... the main story over here is about the bl**dy hobbit (it's putting me off the film) with warner brothers running rings round the govt who are so desparate for it to be filmed here, the second top story is about a welsh guy who lied on his CV when getting a job at their MoD - we are hoping for a good bank robbery or sex scandal to spice up the radio news. Flight to Oz and our friends and family on 9 November!