I'm back! Hello Its seem likes ages since i've written anything here and the last few weeks have been hectic, a bit up and down but mostly brilliant. Melbourne is a city with loads to offer, great bars, cafes, shops from heaven - which was just torture as i couldn't fit another thing into my backpack! and a beach which although could have been Southend (not the most gorgeous) was where we spent half of our time relaxing and soaking up the 34 degree sunr...

Hi people! I'm now in Melbourne after a very reluctant departure from New Zealand. Despite the tradegy of grandma breaking down on us on the busiest motorway in the whole of NZ (not impressed!) we had a fantastic last 5 days in Auckland. We were told our van had 'major problems' and decided to abandon her at the garage and went to stay with good friends of my parents Leone and Graeme - what stars they are, we were provided with 'proper' beds, real food, wine...

AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH I skydived yesterday!!!!!!! (and nearly died - i think, but i am ok and all intact!) What a buzz, skydiving 12'000ft over lake Taupo on a gorgeous day it was AMAZING! Even more of a buzz when after 45 seconds of freefalling you drop to 5'000ft and your parachute doesn't open! Instead it drops to the ground and you get hurled back up into the air spinning then freefalling again and eventually the emergency chute opens and your saved...

Hello again, We left Kiakoura and have headed up to the top of the South Island to a city called Nelson. Once again it was raining when we arrived here but luckily the next day was gorgeous so naturally we headed to the local beach which was lovely, except for the seagulls who managed to toilet on me 4 times all within 40 minutes!! Now I know what you'll all be thinking 'oh apparently thats lucky' ...well if you ask me its actually really bloody unlucky and ...

Hello again, I'm sure you'll all be smug to hear that we've had our first day of rain, it poured down! Luckliy it was as we were driving so we managed to escape most of it. We left queenstown earlier in the week which was sad as we loved the place so much but we needed to move on, which we did.... but we went the wrong way, oops, after an hour of driving on a dusty track complete with free roaming sheep, cows, deers, water fords and only passing one oth...