A funny thing happened today that I thought I'd share with you... In November, I sent a parcel to my mate Pun for his birthday. At the same time I sent two other parcels, to other people for their birthdays. Those two parcels were delivered without any problem, but for some reason Pun never got his parcel. He insisted he hadn't received a attemp...

    Hey Everyone, Sorry for being so rubbish with updating the blog!!!! We are soo busy, hehe. So we have been in NZ for just over a week and we are loving it. We are currently in Wellington the capital of NZ, we are catching the ferry across to the south island tomorrow. We have really enjoyed the North, country side is amazing. ...

  Between cricket matches we've had a nose around some of New Zealand's north island. During our first few days in Auckland it was a case of spending some time, 'home from home', after being in South America. Shopping for shoes (which ended up being sent straight back to the UK), drinking coffee in Starbucks (not the same away from White Ci...

Auckland's leafy suburbs blend slowly into the farmland that makes up much of the North Island. Vast swathes of land devoted to the sheep, the cow, and arable crops. Regimented, tamed and productive spaces with the farms of their masters. The flat lands remind me of home and the vast spaces of Norfolk's heart, but New Zealand takes this beyond a...

I like shiny, sparkly, happy things. Among these things are waterfalls, fireworks, butterflies, sparkly jewelry, and Christmas lights. While New Zealand doesn't have the massive displays of Christmas lights that are seen in the US, we found a suburb (the Lower Hutt) that seems to have a few nice display of lights (entered in a Christmas lights c...

We started the day with a golf competition, which was happening right outside where we stayed the night. It was a hole-in-one competition played onto a little green on the lake, about 100m out. I was rubbish, of course, but Thom says my technique is getting a lot better. Thom kept hitting the green, but it was impossible to get it in the hole. A...

74 days until the wedding... Life in Wellington has been plodding along like a wheelbarrow underwater. I've been trying to figure out if the wind is relentless, unrelentless or unrelenting. Also, I joined the library and have been exploring about 3 books a week, trying to identify the food left in between pages by the locals. And why are there s...

Well we have made it to Wellington, as the heavens have not stopped pouring it down..We have managed to find a spot at the harbour to park up along with another few hundred camper vans! On reading the local gossip mag..the Royals are in town and so is Charlotte C to cheer on her boy so you never know who we'll meet later! The Barmy Army base is ...

After the apple picking I went on a bit of a road trip with some guys I'd met on the orchard; the first place I went was Taupo, where you can do the cheapest sky dive in the world!! So I signed up for it, but just my luck, I had all the gear on - the jumpsuit and the works; just went to get on the plane, whacked my head (which hurt!!) and then c...

My final day in Wellington (for now at least) was quite an eventful one! I woke up in the middle of the night and the entire room was shaking and there was an incredible noise, but after a few seconds it stopped...so I stupidly thought no more about it and went back to sleep! It's one of those weird instances where you're not sure if it was a dr...