Tick tock, tick tock...as the clock reached the evening of 27th Jan the cork popped from the bottle and we dived into our campervan to escape from the midges and intermittent rain to celebrate:

1) the milestone of being away from the UK for 6 MONTHS! Time has,as usual, flown past - full of great memories but gone by way too quick, with still so much more to see and do.

2) Being fully-fledged members of the campervannning fraternity. She may lack the style of the classic surf dude VW Combi, but our compact little Ford Econovan (capacity - 2 people and not 1 cubic cm more) suits our need perfectly. We picked her up on arrival at Christchurch and have since covered over 3,500km in our tour of the South Island in just under 3 weeks - heading to the North Island tomorrow. (After the wackiness and novelty value of 'Phoenix', our car in Australia, it was odd at first to not generate the slightest bit of interest from out fellow campsite residents, but we got over it.)

3) All the amazing things here in NZ. In our 3 weeks here we've seen a giant sperm whale up close, more seals than we can remember, swum and shivered with dolphins, been thru' rainforests and past waterfalls, cruised on a fiord, done a tandem bungy, raced on luges, been jet-boating, risked life and limb sky-diving from 12,500 ft, hiked to a glacier and been scared witless by a Maori welcome haka (probably the scariest thing we've done, and they called it a 'welcome'!)

The only downside of so much excitement is the physical toll - Kate's new worry lines and James' undeniable hairloss have been captured on film forever.

On the weather front you'll doubtless be pleased to know that the 38° heat of Oz is now in the past - a mere 19° on our arrival. Its rarely below 20°, (a 'poor summer' for the locals) but for the last week its been raining with a vengeance.

So, Heidi Hi Campers, and see you at the next campsite...in another 6 months' time.