The end of our time is Wellington has come, so as its the last time we will have easy access to a computer we will give all you avid readers a little update of our final days in the Capital. Julia went away with her parents between Christmas and New Year to see a little bit of the North island, and even bullied the whole family into jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane to do yet another skydive. She went black water rafting in the Waitomo Caves, visited a living Maori thermal village, and finished the expedition off with another quad biking trip. While Julia was away having a whale of a time, Dan was slaving away in order to be able to put some food on the table. Christmas in retail means long hours, ... read more

It’s been a while since we last did a blog. We haven’t got much to write about, however we though we would show you some of the eyesores around Wellington… We’re still working hard, saving the pennies for our next big adventures…Julia is still working as a nanny, enjoying the playgrounds and beaches during the weeks, and exploring Wellington at the weekends. Dan on the other hand has become a sales super star with Telecom and is earning heaps of commission. He joins Julia and the boys on his days off for picnics and walks around the clifftops. Other news from our side of the world…we have sold our beloved campervan Joey, and are going to camp our way around the North island, so will be braving tents and wild campsites for 2 months! We have ... read more

We moved into our new house and everything has been sweet as (bro)...its nice to have a roof over our heads and central heating at last (although double glazing hasn't quite reached NZ yet). Dan has been offered a permanent/rest-of-the-year job at Telecom, providing we stay until Christmas - so change of plan again! Joey (the campervan) has been getting on a bit and struggles with hilly Wellington, so we decided to buy a car for day-to day use. It's a lovely Toyota Corona, called Norman. The hard grind of day-to-day work had begun to take it's toll on us, so we thought it was time we went on holiday for the weekend, and tested out our new motor on a road trip. Our destination: Mt Ruapehu, for a weekend in the snow. Being as organised ... read more

Our final stretch began with Queenstown, which is known as the adrenalin capital of the world - so it doesn't take a genius to figure out what type of thing we were going to be doing there. One of the main attractions was the CANYON SWING. This basically a swing into a canyon. It starts off with a 60m freefall followed by a 200m arc that happens as soon as the swing kicks into action (Thankfully it did). That was really fun although only lasts a few seconds really, the best bit being the fact that the staff are the sons of the devil, and like to have fun by pretending to push you and then pulling you back. Julia was sat on her chair for about 5 minutes before they finally let her go, as ... read more

So we arrive in the land of Kaikoura, our intention to find work for a month in this tourist town. We begin by going to a hostel called Dusky Lodge, where we can work in exchange for our accomodation. We initially sign up for a weeks work, and go out job hunting later that day. It rapidly becomes apparent that in order to get some sort of retail or catering job you need to stay for at least 3 months, and as we only plan on staying in the area for one month, we are unsuccessful. So along with been assured there are plenty of jobs, we also discover that now is not the right time or place for us. Kaikoura is a lovely place to visit, but over a month is just far too long ... read more