Well, this is what the seagulls in New Plymouth thought of me . With the wind that was howling by the port I'm impressed at their accuracy. I'm also slightly curious about their diet. If I was laughing that hard, I can't imagine what a good time they were having.

Our drive from Wanganui was fairly uneventful. We usually look forward to a lunch/beer break in the early afternoon. Foxton Beach was the perfect location for a grilled cheese sandwich and a cool one, but occasionally our plans are foiled and they throw up a no alcohol sign and back it up with a $20,000 fine. Now we like our beer and would risk a couple hundred bucks but even we won't scoff at 20k, even if it's a favourable exchange rate.

Thus far the southern island has been very nice. They're having an exceptionally dry summer here but we're still shocked at how dry and brown the countryside is. We had envisioned driving through LUSH green hills but we felt like we were cruising through southern Alberta this week. They seem to be diversifying here too so we're seeing lots of sheep but equally as many cows, and a lot of them. Some of the rivers look so tempting for a dip but we're a little wary of what the run-off might do to the rivers and some of the local newspapers that we've read are corroborating our theory to a certain extent. We spent 2 days in the Marlborough Sound. It's really beautiful and the sunny weather helped a lot.

The roads here are crazy curvy and the speed limit seems to be 100kmh unless you're right in the centre of town. If I try to keep even close to that speed limit our car's contents are strewn everywhere, our little Nissan's tires squeal and scrub around and I get vicious looks from my co-pilot so I just try to make room for the locals at every opportunity. All that twisting around is good for our core muscles and some days that's our only exercise.

We treated ourselves to a couple pints yesterday afternoon and watched the women's tennis final from Melbourne. Ahhh, TV.

Yup, still missing you all. Hope you're all well.

Oh, we looked at the Calgary forecast - hope you all call in sick on Tuesday - looks to be a cool one.

Love from NZ - J&B