Geo: -32.1141, 116.016Firstly, apologies for the sideways pictures in the last blog. I had one minute 10 seconds left on the wifi connection so did not want to risk being timed out and having to start again. Getting online is more problematic than we expected it to be in Australia but I should bring you up to date on other matters first. Anyone who doesn't want to hear banking sagas can miss out the next page or so.At the end of the last blog we hoped we had enough cash to hire the camper. We just made it despite Santander blocking our debit cards that day! We had withdrawn so much money over that week that they decided it must be someone else using our cards. So we were then minus credit card and two debit ... read more

Geo: -42.4023, 173.681From Glacier Land we continued our tour round South Island, crossing over through Wanaka and Cromwell to the east coast. In Cromwell we stopped off to visit an old gold mining site, look at the equipment used and the miners homes, and try our hand at gold panning. I was surprised to hear that many of the early miners were Chinese. Our guide made the point that few of the miners made any money as the large companies and business men of the time tied everything up so that miners had to pay them high rates for food, water, hire of equipment etc. and by the time they had paid all these charges and visited the bars they rarely had money left over. Gold mining, even panning, requires a lot of water. The panning ... read more

Geo: -39.4917, 176.916Napier has a special Art Deco Weekend in February which we attended. Richard had the onerous task of booking accommodation for us at a late date when nothing was left in Napier itself. However, he managed to find a room in Havelock North, only a fifteen minute drive from the town. The only concern was that the room accommodates ten so we were not sure if we had to share, which would probably have required us to purchase 8 sets of ear plugs for ohers to deaden our snores. Luckily the room was all ours, (complete with ten bunks if we wished) and as we left most bunks folded away, we had lots of space. The campsite itself was reminiscent of the holiday camps at home in the 50's, with crazy golf, an indoor ... read more

Geo: 20.6509, -105.215Our time in Puerta Vallarta is coming to an end. We have been able to visit most of the sites and interesting towns within a days travel, and have walked almost every street of the town (at least once). After leaving Los Tules and moving into Posada Iris we quickly learned the rhythms of life here. We are awoken between 7.45 and 8am every morning by the man who drives a truck up and down each street delivering replacement gas cylinders (no mains gas supply). He announces his presence by playing a continuous message interspersed with the refrain that I am sure you are familiar with. Do you remember the old cowboy films when they are surrounded by indians and about to be overrun? Then you hear the cavalry charging to the rescue? That ... read more

Geo: 20.6509, -105.215Happy New Year to you allWe hope you all enjoyed the holidays and survived the bad weather without burst pipes or other winter problems.Los Tules, in Puerto Vallarta, provided our holiday hideout as we took advantage of the comfortable accommodation (complete with hot showers at any time of the day or night!), pools, beach and super-sized terrace. The first room they gave us was very dark with a tiny balcony which was permanently in the shade, and we overlooked the very noisy high rise neighbouring hotel. It took a a few days but eventually they moved us to a much nicer apartment in the middle of the complex, surrounded by the gardens, and as we were at the top of the building it was as if we were living in the palm trees. Most ... read more