Trans Tasman adventures

Otso and Paula guided us to the beaches and wildlife around Sydney, including hiring a car for the weekend and then sitting in it as it was pelted with huge hailstones on the way to visit some Koalas, Kangeroos and Emus. The Emus had to be disuaded from trying to eat our picnic lunch, but fortunately are quite amazingly stupid and easily scared off, even by Lou waving her arms around. In the evening we went for a walk on the North Sydney beaches and watched the Pelicans.

After this, I headed over to Tasmania to catch up with some of my family, and Lou sampled Melbourne. This was a quick visit and we soon flew off to Christchurch in New Zealand. Initially New Zealand foooled us into thinking it was a warm country but having a hot spell in Christchuch the weekend we arrived. We strolled around the botannical gardens and watched locals punting on the river near the colleges before having cream teas. They almost tricked us into thinking we had landed in Cambridge, but everything was too cheap and people were not snooty enough.

We are now well into out trip, and have hired a distinctive camper van to make an impression on the locals. We have come south and walked around the Glaciers at the foot of Mount Cook, sometimes visible through the clouds. My plans to force Lou to walk over the Ball pass (the ridge leading up to Mt Cook) were thwarted by both the weather and Lou's fancy new walking boots wearing in, but it was probably quite an ambitious plan! We stuck to staying in our camper van using the 2 duvets and have not visted any mountain huts yet.

Yesterday we managed to bave to cold to see a colony of seals, fighting and cavorting, and a very rare breeding pair of yellow penguins. We could have paid 40 bucks to watch the night-time 'penguin show' in Omaru, but was much nicer walking around the sea cliffs without anyone else around clapping and throwing fish about. We had to find a camp spot late after this, but managed to camp next to some charcoal burners at the beach in Warrington (nicer than the one near Manchester), and consequently smell of smoke this morning.

If I don't get to write before Christmas, which is highly likely here as most places are pretty remote and sheep don't subscribe to broadband, then have a great Christmas and best wishes from us both. We plan to stock up for a Christmas Day barbeque and have yet to decide where to park the camper to celebrate.