It's my birthday!!!!!!!  The parcels have been arriving over the last few weeks and thanks to the miserable customs laws they all have their contents written on the outside - luckily they're intercepted by my eagle-eyed carer, and subsequently removed!   I have no idea what my day entails, but I've been told I need to be ready by 11 and not to wash my hair ?????  Hmm, I'm not sure whether to be nervous or excited!!!! As it turns out my present is a...

"Get dressed we're going out" was the beginning of my day.� "Er, where to?" was my response.� "It's a surprise".� Hmm, I still have my leg in cast what on earth can we be doing........ We pull up at the airfield in Raglan where I find a local flying club offering glider flights.� Oh my!� Apparently their motto is "so long as you can get in, you can go up!"...

So here we are in raglan for the summer, we've just lined ourselves up jobs in a cafe and somewhere to live for the duration - with Shane and Jenny away for the week and our first Christmas off of work together, this looks like it's going to be a great start.� In the spirit of doing something unusual on Christmas Eve we book ourselves surf lessons.� I'm a little nervous but can't wait to get started as that's the main rea...

So after our 5 day stop in Auckland, and a recommendation of where to go looking for work we head off to a small town on the west coast of New Zealand called Raglan.� With what will be our trusty Bongo?! � We head off onto the New Zealand open road.� With 3 hours on the road under our belt we arrive in Raglan.� Apparently we were told that this was a 5 hour drive, so either the bongo goes like the clappers or somebody w...

And so after the bustling smells and sights of Asia we arrive back in the western world of New Zealand. Via an 8 hour flight to Sydney (nice airport thats about all we can tell you) and then on a 2 hour flight to Auckland. Plus all the jet lag and the fact that we are sitting on the bottom of the world we were some what confused to the whereabouts of time and dates. So the first day/afternoon/evening was spent retrieving mental and physical alertness by the aid o...