Hello all

We are now back in Auckland having finished our driving tour of New Zealand. Our good fortune with the weather has deserted us this last week. It has gone from clear sunny skies to gloomy rainy days. However it has not stopped us from having a good time.

We spent some time on the west coast of the South Island in the glacial region. It's quite a strange area because it is covered in rain forests giving you no sense that there there are any glaciers at all, however, they do come right down into the rainforest and end about 300m above sea level. We were able to walk up to both the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers along the side of the rivers that are formed from the melt waters. The walk was a little challenging at times because they were still clearing paths that had been blocked by rocks and silt that had come down because of heavy rain, but well worth it to be able to see the glaciers close up.

Before leaving the South Island we spent two nights in Christchurch. It is true what they say about it being a very English place as it reminded us of traditional cities such as York and Cambridge. There is a lovely park where you can be punted down the River Avon (although we chose the pedalo option!) and an arts centre which had lots of shops selling local crafts, pictures and foods - we could have easily got carried away in there but there wouldn't have been any space left for our clothes in our luggage! We got so carried away with thoughts of being at home that we tried to find somewhere that served Sunday lunch. Unfortunately the place we found,The Fox and Ferret (claiming to be a traditional English gastro pub), although having Sunday Roast on the menu, had actually decided to discontinue it that very day!!! We'll just have to wait until we get home - not too long now!

We leave for Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon and arrive several hours before the time we will have taken off - weird eh? We then go straight through to Las Vegas for three nights and are really looking forward to the ultimate Christmas tackfest!

Hope you are enjoying the run up to Christmas!!

Kate & Damian X