Hi everyone, how's it goin', we're sweet! We have been shakin' our dags around the north island for the last two weeks. Abby has been trying to wear her jandals as much as possible (Eric does not have any). Yes we have been here too long and we have started to talk kiwi. Why say 'you're welcome' when you can say 'no worries'.

We still love New Zealand, but have noticed a few anomalies that would make it difficult to live here permanently. Like the driving, generally there appears to be a poor standard. The right turn rule is only followed when it suits, there is a lot of tail gateing and worst of all insurance is not mandatory as we discovered when a young lad ran into the back of us. Luckily it was only a minor accident, but we had to go and make a police report. The young female officer on duty was so laid back she was horizontal and did not know which report to fill in or which copy to give us.

In Wellington we met up with friends from Sawbridgeworth (Linda and John) who have preceded us on the round the world trip. We sat on the harbour front eating a picnic lunch and compared notes on the places that we have visited. We then met up in the evening at a local Retired Service Mens Club; very posh. nothing like our working mens clubs, for a drink and some Jive dancing.

We also found time to visit someone that Abby used to work with; Phil Mason and her husband Richard who live in Hamilton. It was good to catch up with the gossip and Eric interrogated Richard about the pros and cons of living in this country. They insisted that we stay the night in their very nice bungalow on a 'lifestyle plot' of several acres with beautiful views.

New Zealand has a population of 4 million people, over 1 million of whom live in Auckland. For some reason the rest of the country seems to dislike them; when we inquired as to why, we were told that they were shallow and self centred. Aucklanders are referred to as Jafa's, which stands for 'just another f***ing aucklander'. We stayed in Auckland for a couple of days to make our own opinion, and it has to be said that it is quite mixed. When we were lost several people stopped to help us and give directions. However we went to an Auckland Ceroc jive club and they were very stuck up and only danced with their own friends/partners and did not mix.

The sky tower is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere, so Eric could not turn down the opportunity to walk around the top of it.......... on the outside! Abby stayed in the observation lounge and took photos, she found it hard enough to go up to 220 metres in a lift with a glass floor with views of the city as you went up. Eric was breathalysed before being allowed up, then attached via a harness to a rail above the walkway. Initially terrified he was soon leaning out over the edge and waving his arms about. Pamela a local journalist was also on the walk, she stood on the platform immediately putting her hands in her pockets whilst the two men (including Eric) were holding on to the harness rope until their knuckles were white!

It is difficult to describe the sky here, it is somehow different to home, kind of bigger, and there are spectacular cloud formations sometimes, particularly around sunset.

Having been in the campervan, we have listened to a lot of local radio. Two things of note; firstly May is duck hunting season and inbetween adverts for your guns and shot from the local hardware store there were health and safety bulletins about how to gut your duck and store it without getting food poisoning. Hunters usually only accidentally shoot one another, so there has been no local massacres of note here, consequently it is very easy to buy a gun over the counter, no questions asked. The other thing on local radio is the very regular ads about mens performance issues, if you get the drift. At least one every hour, Eric was starting to get a complex, it is a good job we have given the camper back now.