JON here. It's 2200 and i'm rapidly regretting agreeing to do the next blog entry.... I did volunteer a week ago and have been talking about doing it ever since, so hey ho. Please excuse the spelling - the spell check is in spanish and is highlighting every word so i've turned him off.

My tardiness has left me with a number of days to fill in, so the glorious narrative with which Claire opened "three docs and a contador" will not be continued i am afraid. By the way, the word contador in the title means"accountant" in spanish and also just happens to be the same name as an excellent cyclist which Andy hopes someday to be a lot more like. We struggled for a while to come up with something funny but couldn't.

So, on with my diary entry...

Moving on from the glacier we headed north for ages to the Abel Tasman NP (over seven hours - only helped by: being able to lie flat in the back of the passion waggon; a large serve of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakie; and a surprisingly good curry en route). Ended up staying in a campsite aptly titled Old Macdonalds's Farm overnight - lots of animals. Enjoyed feeding the ducks early in the morning, prior to heading off to our kayak hire gaff. Before paddling off we had to endure a 3 hour briefing from a fat bloke trying to be funny. Unfortunatelty we had inclement weather throughout the full days paddle, but moral remained high (or moderate to high) and fun was had by all. Toppped day off with long awaited hot shower back at base. Abel Tasman was awesome - seals, views etc. Would be nicer in the sunshine.

Then off to Nelson the following day. Claire had promised us a gorgeous little village with plenty to see and do. It wasn't and there wasn't. Nice kebab though. Headed swiflty on to Queen Charlotte Sound - amazing. Pulled up right next to the sound. Gill, myself and Andy went for a glorious swim (cut short by increasingly paranoid talk of eels and sharks) prior to being greeted by Caire's special coq-au-vin. Divine. (Thanks Ben Stanley for the recipe).









Unperturbed by a welter of sand fly bites (suffered whilst chewing chicken bones and swilling vin rouge late into the night) we headed off for a long day hike - part of the Queen Charlotte track. Gill started to flag in the heat and seemingly never ending up-hill nature of the track, but soldiered on with the promise of a snack at the end. Pushed on to Picton that afternoon, to enjoy excellent fish and chips ("fush n chups") by the sea front.









Then came the long awaited Marlborough wine day. Nice. Stayed in a camp site in Renwick which had a petanque court. YES!! Sadly my adolescent form abandoned me and i lost badly to Andy (and also very nearly to Claire and Gill). I put it down to the constant berrating of my somewhat camp style... You can judge for yourself in the photo. Next on to the wine and food... Hired bikes and set off to Herzog Winery for lunch (research re their Michelin Starred chef paid off). Was stunning food in a stunning setting - see photo. Then pedaled around as many wineries as we could. Highlight for me was Andy accusing Claire of being "SILLY... SILLY... SILLY Claire" as she tried to master no-hands cycling whilst heading for on-coming traffic. Evening spent recovering from a day of excess watching a movie, all emotional as we were to abandon the passion waggon the following day.

Off to Chrstchurch to drop the van off and enter the world of the true backpacker - YHA hostels, games of pool and connect 4, and no more coq-au-vin for a while. (Unlike the average backpacker, given the cost, i developed an unhealthy obsession with Merino wool clothing - the bank balance is still wincing but Andy is mighty jealous of my sports/outdoor look). Took in most of what C'church had to offer with a long stroll, then flew off to Wellington the next day. A quick public service announcement - don't stay at Nomads Hostel in W'ton unless very intoxicated. We were not, and winged about the noise like people older than our spring chicken selves for a long while. We did get free lockers the next day however when Andy demanded to see the manager in his best angry contador tone.

Wellington greeted us with our first really bad meal (is this starting to sound like a cooking/food diary?) from "Mr Bun" - a bacon and egg sandwich probably made before we arrived in NZ. Hey ho - made us feel like real backpackers. W'ton looked really cool, but unfortuantrely we only had enough time to see the museum (big squid and lots more) and a few surrounding streets, and pick up a hire car.

Pushed on to Whakapappa Village (what a great name for a place) with a view to hiking the Tongariro Pass - volcano territory - the following day. Failed. Weather was too bad and thus dangerous. There was talk of pushing on regardless in true Ray Mears style but sense got the better of us. Andy was not a happy man. Really not happy. He went quiet for 30 minutes, thinking back to his days in the cadet force when he would have headed straight out there into enemy land regardless... Despite the initial set back we still went for a great 5 hour stroll around the lakes, finished with a 15 minute stretch of "double time" for the boys (Andy was happy again). Then headed off to Rotarua, via Lake Taupo - with lots of talk of Ironman (sorry girls). Desperately drove around Taupo looking for IM signs for our mate Johnno to no avail.

Rotarua - smelly but nice. Stumbled across the most amazing meal deal = huge shepheards pie and a decent beer for next to nothing. All very happy. Following morning was spent digesting the previous in hot springs - water spurting from the ground at 98 degrees (slightly cooler in the human baths). Crazy! Then moved on to see some glow-worms. Mad. Stayed in Hamilton that night. Weird b'packers - cross between a nursing home and a family home. Perfectly adequate however.

Pushed on to stay with Claire's Uncle Johnny in Whangerei. Fantastic! We were treated to a whistle stop tour of the locality, amazing bespoke 5 course meal, fine wines, table tennis tournament and much more (many thanks indeed Johnny if you are reading). Myself and Gill stayed with Johnny's friends - Jean and Doug - lovely hosts and lovely house. (Please pass on our thanks Johnny). Very early start in the morning with sore heads all round...

Valentine's Day. Drove to the Bay of Islands to meet a boat leaving at 0700 to hopefully swim with dolphins. (The NZ meat pies come highly recommended for hangover cures). Unfortunately it turned into an expensive but stunning boat cruise around the islands as the dolphins turned up too late for us to jump in. No worries. Drove back to Auckland YHA for romantic separate dinners.

Lastly, my birthday - the longest one yet. We reckon it was approx 42 hours. Got on a variety of flights, eventuating in us getting off at Easter Island. Someone else is taking over here, so adios from me. Apologies for the verbosity... Much love to all.

Hi everybody! It's Claire here - I've been tasked with our first blog update. Firstly apologies in the delay with getting up and running. I had a minor incident involving the mac and a glass of water 2 days before we left Sydney which sort of scuppered our plans. Fortunately Andy had agreed not to divorce me and it looks as though the insurance company will cough up so all good really!

We have had the most amazing 10 days here in NZ - if we continue at this pace we will be home very early with all financial and emotional reserves fully expended!

First issue was trying to get through NZ customs. For some reason I was feeling a little apprehensive under the scrutiny of the customs officers... when asked regarding my visa status I blurted out that I was carrying Earl Grey tea bags - much to the amusement of the team! That and Andy's dirty hiking boots looked as though they might be deal breakers on day one!

We kicked off with a weekend in Queenstown visiting Tona - it's an awesome place; really beautiful with heaps to do! Tona was the perfect hostess - providing is with plenty of entertainment and yummy food (thanks sweetie!). Highlights included the shotover jet (an absolute must for anybody heading this way), a lovely vineyard and an almost vertical 2 hour walk straight up a mountain! Almost forgot we also squeezed in bungies (sadly spectating only...maybe participating is yet to come?) and the legendary queenstown ferburgers (twice!). We loved seeing you T and will miss you xx

We then headed off on the routeburn..a 38km trek through glacial valleys heading towards Milford Sound. There are plenty of photos attached but in brief we were stupidly lucky with the weather, the scenery is just stunning and we had a fab time! Hardest part was persuading Jonny he needed to survive on freeze dried pasta for three days...but Andy elected to carry a full pack and managed to stow 3 litres of red wine to soften the blow. Definitely one of the best trips I've ever done. We were collected from the end of the hike and spent the day in a boat on Milford Sound - difficult to convey the scale of the fjord...incredibly beautiful! Jon (Attenborough) Adams particularly enjoyed the seal colony!? He can't wait for the penguins!!

Next stop was Mount Cook - Australasia'a highest mountain. We arrived under thick cloud cover and it remained that way for approximately 36 hours. We did manage another almost vertical hike (this seems to be becoming a bit of a theme!) with views slightly impaired by inclement weather! The next morning we woke at 6am to find beautifully clear skies and the only sensible option was to fork out on a chopper ride! Needless to say it was absolutely awesome - we flew over Mount Cook and the Tasman glacier and landed at the top. Just spectacular!

From Mount Cook we headed back south taking in a short but lovely stop at Lake Wanaka with time for some energetic mountain biking round the lake...before heading north again, this time to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. We spent yesterday on a full day ice hike fully kitted out with all the gear including our own crampons. The morning was a fairly leisurely climb but things turned fairly savage after lunch... in brief we spent almost two hours at the bottom of a 10m vertical crevasse while a rather large boy in front managed to get wedged and had to be hoisted out! In true style I managed to get my crampons stuck together and fell sideways into the floor of the crevasse..not a classy manoeuvre in retrospect. The boys were very excited to finally be using their survival skills and we did all feel we had a fairly 'on the edge' trip! After a day feeling wet and cold we treated ourselves to a luxury campsite (with hot showers and electric hook up!)...and managed Jonny's gourmet stew and a few beers in the back of the van in celebration!

That's pretty much it folks! You can see we've adapted well to the constraints of travelling!? Hope all's well and not too snowy back in blightie! Will be in touch soon LOL from three docs and a contador!