More than a week since the last update. I'm obviously slacking.

Will somebody explain to Jody how to sleep through the night!? In actual fact she did a 4hr/6hr sometime last week, and last night she did a 5hr, but most of the time she's still waking for feed (/comfort) every 2.5 hours or so. Which is clearly exhausting. From yesterday I have decided that the way forward is to restrict her night-times (whether that be feeding, eating or playing) to her bedroom. I have been favouring my own comfort in recent weeks by bringing her into our bedroom for feed or comfort, but recently that has led to tantrums on removal, so the best bet, methinks, is to try and 'train' her into understanding that night times are for her own bedroom. Unfortunately this means freezing my butt off trying to feed her at 1:30am, 3:45am bla bla bla on the nursery chair, but as long as she gets the message I suppose it's OK.

Also Jody's feeding has gone a little to pot this week. Friday she refused point blank to be fed with a spoon (the Taylor/Wardle stubborness kicking in) so I spent 1.5 hours feeding her varieties of finger-food. Which was partially successfull but hardly time-efficient. Luckily she's since accepted spoon-food quite happily so I am definitely hoping it was just a phase (and not daddy preference). Tomorrow will tell.

Friday night my parents (who were in London for an upholstery fabric show) were able to babysit Jody while Roj and I went out for dinner alone for the first time since 10 June 2003. Isn't that amazing? We had a lovely relaxing meal at Blandford Restaurant and were quite surprised to see Frost and MacLean paintings on the wall (both artists associated with my old employer Flowers East). Had a long chat with the somewhat demoralised restauranteur and were the only people in the whole restaurant for the duration, but otherwise enjoyed it enormously ... as did my parents who were more than happy to be entertained by Jody for 2.5 hours of a Friday night.

What else? The boxes are still lingering but progress is definitely being made. I'd almost venture to say that our bedroom is now sorted, and the nursery is fine apart from the need for some built-in shelving (having constructed the new cot on Saturday afternoon). Upstairs is rather further from completion but my transformer arrives Tuesday and my ASDL is operational from tomorrow, so certainly progress is good on the office front. Thanks vastly to my parents for putting up with so much of our rubbish for so long (and more to come in the next couple of weeks) - I don't know what we'd do with the space they're so willing to provide.

Right. So this week there's lots to do as usual. Have to fix my glasses tomorrow, which are rather distorted despite being brand new. Have to start investigating lighting, paint and flooring options for the flat and potentially nursery options for Jody (although if she keeps being stubborn about food and drink I can't see anyone taking her on). Big ideas about completing all unpacking in the next couple of days and *finally* tackling that pile of ironing that's been hanging around for a week or so. And running. Now what's that? Actually I've been running twice in the last week. First time was last Sunday when I conquered Primrose Hill for the first time in history (small but mean), and second time was this Saturday when my parents once again kindly babysat while Roj and I did the Hill x 4 in a bid to get ourselves kick-started into training for the Swaledale Marathon (12th June). Very exciting to do both (even under sleep-deprivation) and looking forward to much much more in the coming months.

So. I'm quite excited to be back in the UK. I've done little more in terms of contact than send out a cursory change-of-address email, but things should improve in the next week or so. It's certainly nice to be wandering the ol' Marylebone streets and appreciating the local amenities. Our flat is larger than I anticipated and having a kitchen in which I can swing a cat (well OK, a kitten) is pure bliss. Still don't know what shape the next few weeks will take, but that's all right - quite interesting in fact. Just hope Jody will sort her sleep pattern out (with a little help) so that I can conserve a little energy. Interesting times.

More knackered now after a week at home than when I was contending with heavy jetlag. All due to two bad nights with Jody who is waking up starving hungry every two hours or so. Am on a big drive now to force-feed her as many solids as possible during the day so that she doesn't get so hungry at night. Lets hope it works cos I can't continue with as little sleep as I'm getting right now. She's only slept for about half an hour today anyway, instead of her recently usual 3, so I really do have high hopes that tonight will be better. Otherwise I won't even be able to string a sentence together tomorrow.

Let me see. We've had an interesting time this week, mostly doing a helluva lot of unpacking and packing and shopping and stocking up. We're still surrounded by boxes (having picked up a lot of our culinary stuff from my parents' house on Wednesday/Thursday), but are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My parents are due here for three days at the end of next week to drop off the last of it (and take some stuff back to theirs) and that really is the end of it.

We've also ordered blinds for our bedroom and the sitting room and are looking at carpets and thinking about bathroom fittings and furniture and cots and things. Lots to do and lots of decisions to make but having the flat sorted is certainly something to look forward to.

Meanwhile I've been for an eye test and discovered I need reading glasses. Not urgently or anything - I'm only +1/2 - but enough that it will help when I look at a TV screen or a book. Now who feels old?

And I've also decided not to do the London marathon. 8 weeks to train? Who am I trying to kid? In actual fact I was depressed about the pressure it was putting me under, and the way I'm feeling right now I couldn't run round the park if someone paid me, let alone 9 times that distance. I just want to be able to not run if that's how I feel, so I've decided to defer if I can, or otherwise just not do it. Very disappointing but undoubtedly the right decision. And now I can just concentrate on the Swaledale marathon in June. Phew.

Roj starts back at work on Monday so I will finally be settling into some kind of routine. Am definitely planning to finish the last of the 'putting things away', and to chase after local daycare options on Monday/Tuesday. Am eagerly awaiting Pipex broadband sometime in the next few days (and a transformer solution for all my US computer gear when I can find someone to give me the right answers) so that I can get my home office sorted out. My parents arrive Wednesday and have kindly offered to babysit so that Roj and I can go out for dinner alone for the first time in 8.5 months, and then from next weekend things will really have settled into normality and I will finally have the chance to start chasing old friends and acquaintances which I am very much looking forward to.

Sleep. Ooooh please.

Well we're back. Can hardly believe it myself but it's true. The flight back was fine. Horribly long but fine. Jody slept a lot during it and was incredibly well behaved again when awake. Luckily she had fully recovered by the time we flew out, so our 39 hours of travelling wasn't too stressful for her. Managed to watch Lost in Translation (excellent), Veronica Guerin (harrowing) and Seabiscuit (lengthy but picturesque), as well as reading erudite publication People and sleeping for all of, ooh, 2 hours (which is taking its toll now). At Heathrow we were very kindly met by Camilla who braved a very early start to collect us and take us back to her house for tea and homemade muffins. What a star! We made it back to the flat at about 11am and took our first look round for three years. We were both initially a little disappointed at the state of it - obvious deterioration to carpets, bathrooms and paintwork - but after a couple of hours I started to feel at home again, and enjoy the fact that we were in a place we can call our own. To be fair, living 3 minutes from Marylebone High Street also has its bonuses (have already been to Waitrose several times). Had a bit of a giggle at our lift - which we were quite impressed with 4.5 years ago when we moved in - a squash for 2 people with a small pushchair and hardly the grandeur of the NY elevator!

Sunday afternoon was a bit of a write-off despite big plans to get on with our agenda. We both went to sleep at around lunchtime after a trip to the supermarket and didn't wake up until 6:30pm at which point we went out on a search for fish, chips and water (this London tap water is nasty).

Monday we hit John Lewis' admirable baby department to equip ourselves with child seat and all manner of babyproofing equipment, as well as taking a quick glance into flooring & home decoration departments for ideas (having decided we need to renovate the flat substantially). Predictably this took the better half of the day so that by the time we'd finished the only thing left was to seek a Mothercare for a high chair. Unfortunately this sent us on a wild goose chase around Oxford Street at rush hour, the only useful result of which was to find that the fab chippy on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road has shut down.

Today we received delivery of all our New York shipping from two very friendly Pickfords fellas. We spent the whole morning unpacking the boxes so they could take them away when they left, and then the whole afternoon hiding stuff away in the various cupboards and wardrobes and shelving that we possess. We're now down to the flotsam and jetsam that belongs nowhere and seems to exist only to frustrate, and losing steam as we head into early evening, not having yet recovered from the vicious jetlag that has us waking at 2:30am and needing sleep from about 6pm.

Tomorrow we're off to Shropshire to swap unusable shipped items with stuff we've had in storage with my folks for the last 3 years - including a vast array of wedding gifts which I'm quite excited to finally be able to use. Just a short trip and then back to London on Thursday to continue with another week of stress and organisation. Very much looking forward to the first week of March, which seems to be the first opportunity to relax and make plans to catch up with some London people, as well as doing more practical things like finding suitable daycare, booking a painter/decorator and starting (gently, I hope) back into work.

It's good to be back on the whole. Felt quite a warm feeling as we drove down Marylebone road, and it wasn't because of the gorgeous sunny weather I can tell you. Looking forward to the long term and making the most of the reasons we came back here - family & friends being not the least of those.

Jody was 8 months old yesterday. We had a mixed day with her. She is definitely getting better but by the middle of the day she had been woken from her nap (to move into a bigger room) and had suntan cream in her eye so she demonstrated the ability to have the biggest tantrum ever. She really was kicking and screaming and sobbing and wouldn't calm down until I rocked her and hummed to her for about forty minutes. Luckily she then went to sleep for most of the afternoon and when she woke up she was our happy little Jody again. Roj dragged her round the whole flat on a beach towel which she loved, and she spent about an hour nibbling on bits of watermelon, banana, apple and fruit loops (only available cereal the right shape for her - even though it's horrendously flavoured and sweetened). Roj even finally managed to get her to eat a jar of apple puree which is basically the first solid food she's had for nearly a week now. Let's hope she continues to accept it because I really don't reckon milk alone is enough for her.

We arrived at the Bay of Islands on Tuesday afternoon after quite a difficult 3-hour drive with Jody extremely impatient and fed up in the back for most of it. It was a big relief to let her crawl around the apartment when we checked in and there was plenty of floor space and low furniture to keep her occupied. We did a supermarket trip to stock up for lunch and breakfast and relaxed at lunchtime with a bottle of champagne and various nibbles on the balcony. We're overlooking the bay here and have a brilliant view of the beach and the islands, and it's only a 15 minute walk into the town, so it's pretty idyllic.

Yesterday morning, we were moving into a bigger room (with an outdoor spa bath and a 180° balcony). Unfortunately the new room came available later than we expected, and waking Jody from her nap was what started the whole tantrum thing. I'm just glad that she had a reasonable nap in the afternoon and managed to cheer up a bit. While she's still ill it's easy to see that her temper is a little shorter than usual and she gets tired very easily. Like the rest of us, I suppose.

This morning we made it down onto the beach while it was cool enough to take Jody, and spent quite an amusing 45 minutes watching her playing in sand (eating it again, of course) and paddling with her in the shallows. The beach isn't the best here though (I think we were spoiled by Sydney and Dunedin) - full of shell fragments and bits of unidentified washed-up stuff, so we had to keep an eye on her. She's asleep now (paddling must be exhausting), and Roj is reading the paper in the sun while I shelter (mad dogs and English men) and potter around. Very much enjoying the fact that we're not required to move around any more until we leave, which is evidenced by the fact that my belongings are scattered all around the apartment. It's an amazing place too - two bedrooms and a huge sitting/dining room with open plan kitchen and everything opening out onto this enormous bay-view balcony where we've been watching the most amazing huge vibrant butterflies. It's utterly extravagant but lovely to indulge on our last few days here. I'm finally feeling relaxed (if a little sleep-deprived), although all that will change with the 36 hours of travelling we have ahead of us on Saturday with ill baby. Trying not to think about that.

In fact, to be honest, I'm quite looking forward to getting back. I'm looking forward to moving into our flat in London, unpacking all our stuff, kitting out the second bedroom for Jody and getting on with normal life. It's been a while and I sort of miss it. And there's definitely a stack of people to catch up with once we're happily installed. Oh I'm sure I'll find plenty to whinge about when I get there, but right now I'm looking forward to a bit of stability and routine and especially the good effect that that will hopefully have on Jody.

We're in Auckland and Jody's still ill. She refused solids completely the last two days and is still throwing milk up intermittently (like tonight, all over my jeans, 10 minutes after I put a wash on). Today is the first day she hasn't been administered with Tylenol and Dimetapp though, so perhaps we're making progress. It's certainly a relief to stop squirting meds into her mouth since she screams bloody murder when I do it. At last her energy levels (and volume) have increased slightly and we've even had a cheeky little grin or two from her. Lets hope things improve even more tonight so that she has a couple of germ-free days before contending with the new barrage of nasty stuff on Saturday's flights. Are we already leaving so soon?

Had a couple of interesting experiences the last two days. Left Taupo after breakfast on Sunday and headed towards Rotorua. Stopped off at our first thermal experience on the way - Craters of the Moon which was very exciting (steam rising from the ground, huge smelly yellow craters etc.) until the skies opened and we got absolutely drenched. Would have been funny except for the poor little mite sneezing away in the Baby Bjorn and the fact that we were at the furthest point from the car when all this happened. Thought the North Island was supposed to be warm and sunny in mid-summer? Got back to the car and changed into warm dry clothes and turned the heating up and by the time we reached the next thermal spot at Wai-o-Tapu even the rain had dried out, enabling us to enjoy the real boiling mud pools, hissing bubbling craters and the multicoloured 'Champagne Pool' bubbling and steaming away like a real turquoise cauldron. All accompanied by the stink of sulphurous gases of course.

We then went on to pay our way into another tourist trap - Te Whakarewarewa - to view our first geyser which was happily well underway for the duration of our visit. Very impressive indeed when you managed to get a glimpse of it between bellowing steam, carved Maori sculptures and bus loads of tourists. Still, I suppose the nation has to capitalise.

By mid-afternoon we were installed in a rather dodgy motel outside of the town centre and looking for distractions so we made our way over to the 'Agrodome' for a couple of silly activities. First was 'zorbing' where you clamber into a large inflatable ball (I mean 12' across), strap yourself in and get launched down a steep grassy slope. On paper this sounds like quite good fun, but in fact it was one of the dullest and most inane things I've done. Stick to the teacups at yer local fairground - cheaper and more thrilling. Next though, we headed over to the freefall simulation thingy where you lie over a big jet engine pumping lots of air at you (a sort of vertical wind-tunnel). You don a silly skydiving jumpsuit and attempt to hit the safety net while flying in a controlled manner as if you were really skydiving. It sounds convoluted but it was the best 4 minutes of fun ever - better than skydiving even. Absolutely loved it.

After that thrill we headed off for dinner at Herb's Place where Herb's wife took grizzly Jody off our hands for 20 minutes while we ate our main course in peace - there's service for you! And then back to the dodgy motel for an early night.

Today after a very difficult night with Jody hacking to the point of retching every half hour from midnight to 6am, we headed north to Auckland in familiar gathering cloud cover. We arrived for a late lunch in the Americas Cup Village and then went for a wander around the city to look at the Sky Tower and surrounding area. Once again, not overly impressed by the big city stuff New Zealand has to offer, but the Americas Cup yachts sure are pretty.

Tomorrow we're off north again to the final point on our map - the Bay of Islands, where we'll be relaxing for the next 4 days. No driving, no packing and unpacking, just a bit of r and r in a quiet place by the sea. Even the weather looks like it's going to hold up, at least until Thursday/Friday, so it should be lovely.

Interesting few days since we left the South Island. We arrived late in Wellington on the 4th after a very picturesque dusk sail out of Marlborough Sound. On the ferry we met the same tour group of British pensioners that I'd seen on the whale-watching trip, one of whom was very keen to take Jody off our hands for half an hour or so. It was very different to arrive in the capital city after leaving the somewhat provincial South Island, and unfortunately Wellington heightened the contrast by giving us an appalling deluge on arrival. Due to the start of the 7s rugby tournament in Wellington the next day, there were a huge amount of fans in the city (it was lucky that Roj pre-booked all our hotels a couple of weeks ago or we'd have been in trouble several times already), but the Bay Plaza wasn't up to Kaikoura's White Morph Motor Inn standards with very ancient décor, not much space to crawl around in, and none of the hygiene standards we'd seen previously. It was quite amusing to arrive to a queue formulated from the same old tour group though, who'd booked into the Bay Plaza as well. What are the chances of that?

On the 5th the weather was grey, cold and English although we were spared rain for the whole day. We wandered into the city to see the place but ended up walking in circles wondering what we were missing before finding somewhere to eat. After lunch we rode the cable car to the top of the botanical gardens and then spent a very pleasant hour or so walking through them on our way back to the hotel. Both of us were very lethargic in the afternoon, due to some difficult nights from Jody the last couple of days, so we were happy to lounge around in the room, taking it in turns to try and sleep and watching hideous American sitcoms like Malcolm in the Middle and The Seventies Show that we've managed to avoid for the last 3 years. We wanted fish and chips for dinner and took a drive to try and find takeaway. Instead we settled for a big fish restaurant/café on the waterfront out of the main city where we knew we'd find something basic. What we didn't know we'd find is the same old tour group that we'd seen on the whale-watching boat in Kaikoura, on the ferry from Picton and in the queue at our hotel reception. And it wasn't as if the restaurant was a popular or central one - it was the sort of thing you'd find in a broken down English seaside resort, it was big enough to not see the people on the other side of the room, and yet we didn't have to wave across a crowded room at them because we were seated right next to them!

I wasn't a great big fan of Wellington. There wasn't much character to the place and its geography (city on water surrounded by steep mountains) wasn't nearly as impressive as that of Queenstown or Christchurch. It didn't help that I was absolutely exhausted after the restless nights from Jody, but I suspected something was wrong from the morning when she'd developed a bit of a chesty cough and spent the whole day being whingy and refusing food. As it turned out, things only got worse. We left Wellington after breakfast at a slow and rugby-supporter-packed café, and made our way out to Napier - Art Deco city. We arrived mid-afternoon and decided to take Jody into the outdoor pool for 10 minutes. It was a bit damn chilly and by the time we'd got ourselves and her into suitable sun-protection gear, the previously empty pool had been beset by 12-year-olds, so we really did minimise our time there. It was only after the pool episode and ensuing bath that we realised that Jody had deteriorated quite significantly. Her chest was sounding really awful and she was having trouble breathing with the amount of phlegm that was clearly at the back of her throat. Nevertheless she nursed quite healthily (for the second time in as many hours) so we headed out to town to find somewhere to eat. We ended up sitting outside at the classically art deco Hotel Grosvenor after being rejected (no space) at a rather posh little restaurant down the road from the hotel. We both commented on how relaxed Napier seemed to be - lovely atmosphere with people who seemed to be out and about and enjoying themselves (may have been something to do with the fact that it was NZ national holiday Waitangi day). But we'd barely tucked into our first glass of wine before Jody was violently throwing up all over herself, Roj and the pavement. Several times. Of course this was the source of much worry, but honestly she seemed quite a bit better afterwards, so we finished our meal and resolved to ask the hotel for the phone number of a doctor in case she was going to deteriorate. When we got back to the room though, her temperature was at 101° F, and she was very upset, so we decided to take her straight to the 24-hour medical centre a mile away, convinced that she must have some kind of hideous chest infection. Luckily there was no wait when we got there, and the doctor was able to see her straight away. Of course the upshot was that she was just suffering with a quick and sudden cold which was dripping down her throat and making her sick. She was prescribed some Tylenol to keep the fever down and some Dimetapp to soothe her symptoms and that was it! Panic over!

Poor little Jody though. It's quite heart-wrenching to watch her throwing her little guts up (which she did again this morning in her carseat, and tonight - though on a smaller scale), and crying with this little hoarse voice. Her nose is running like crazy and she rattles when she breathes and has about quarter her usual energy, but I'm very relieved to think it's just a cold and she'll be back to normal soon. Just hoping we don't get it now.

(Oh, and in the middle of all this she also worried her fourth tooth through, so she is now officially symmetrical and killing us with her spine-chilling teeth-grinding. More on the way though - she's dribbling like anything and is tangibly showing the next 2 along on the top so the teething days are not nearly over.)

After the drama of the evening of the 5th, we left Napier in the morning for a very short drive to Taupo which is the start of the volcanic hot-spring, geyser, mud-pool thing. We checked into a very pleasant little motor lodge and wandered into town for lunch, after which we decided to 'explore' the town. After almost abandoning that idea, we happened upon part of the Taupo Arts Festival in the local park where a whole bunch of circus-type people were having silly tournaments - juggling competitions, unicycle battles and the like. We happily spent the next hour watching in amusement as people threw diabolos into buckets of water on the compere's head , or attempted to tackle each other while unicycling, and so on. Very good entertainment for the afternoon.

After getting back to the room and falling asleep for an hour or so, I even braved my second run of this holiday - about 5 scorching miles along the lakeside on pancake-flat paved pathway with skyrocketing pulse. Either I'm getting Jody's little bug or I'm the most unfit I've ever been. I'm hoping the heat had something to do with it.

Meanwhile we're now back from dinner in town. Roj is watching bad NZ television. Jody is sleeping off her drowsy-making-Dimetapp, and I am updating. A week from today we'll be well on the way back to Blighty, and I can't believe we've really been away for 3 weeks already. Just about sick of living out of bags though, me, so am already looking forward to our 4 day break at the same place in the Bay of Islands to finish off the holiday. It's been good so far, but as Roj and I discussed tonight, very different from our usual calibre of holidays. Great to see NZ but impossible not to miss the mountain biking, windsurfing, sailing, snowboarding stuff we normally indulge in. This new style of 'family' holiday is definitely worth it, but it takes some getting used to, that's for sure.

A couple of things I neglected to mention last time I wrote. Firstly that Jody's top left front tooth came through on 1 February, nearly 2 months after her bottom two. We're now really waiting for the top right, because these top two are causing her a lot of discomfort (and therefore me a lack of sleep). The second thing is that she moved into a forward-facing childseat from her rear-facing infant seat when we swapped from campervan to car. The infant seat limit is 20lbs and Jody is probably now around 21 so the transition is overdue, in addition to which she can now sit in the back and see/be seen by us in the car (she had been in the front middle seat in the campervan which was better with the rear-facing seat). Very exciting developments all round except that the carseat development also included a spider experience. I was looking round at Jody when we had just set off and suddenly saw this very fast greenish spider running around the arm of the carseat. Not knowing whether NZ has biting spiders, and not wanting to risk it I launched myself at it but it evaded me at least twice. When Roj asked what was going on, in my excitement I said that a huge spider was attacking Jody, at which point he obviously screeched to a halt and came over to assist. He was more than surprised on finding the offending beast under the carseat cover, that it was probably only the size of a 2p piece, legs and all. Ok, so 'huge' was the wrong term!

Our time in Kaikoura has been very enjoyable. Firstly it's been wonderful to let Jody roam around on the floor of the motel room instead of being confined to a small area at the back of the campervan. She's pulling up on the table, the sofa, the bed, the windows and anything else which looks pull-uppable-on, and invariably gives us a huge grin and some big bounces once she's up there. It's been great for us, too, to have a bit more space and a bit less dampness than in the last week. Even the weather's improved these last two days so we were able to go whale-watching yesterday after all. We took it in turns as they don't allow under-3s on the boat, so I went first and rather notably spent 3.5 hours away from Jody. At first I was rather disappointed by the whale-watching since we were quite far away and really couldn't see much of them. Of course the classic tail flip as they dive down to incredible depths was impressive but so far away it was only a little black dot in the middle of my photos. After the second whale though, we came upon two together - a rare sight apparently - and we were able to watch them from slightly closer against the backdrop of gorgeous mountains around Kaikoura. Very picturesque. We also saw albatrosses, seals and Hector's dolphins (smallest dolphins) so the trip was mostly pretty successful. On my return Roj and I swapped Jody and he went on the next boat out while I took Jody back to the motel room and wrote some postcards. When Roj got back at 7 we meandered into town to taste crayfish (unremarkable and extortionate). All very relaxing and enjoyable (if it wasn't for Jody's fierce teething).

This evening we head off to the ferry at Picton so today is our last day on the South Island. In general it's been very enjoyable and very beautiful but we've suffered slightly with appalling weather and the confines of the campervan with the baby and all our luggage. Looking forward to some very different experiences in the next couple of weeks though including the hot springs and geysers at Rotorua and some wine-tasting at Napier.

Happily my laptop has also recovered from its near-death experience. I let the power completely drain away and when I plugged it in it worked again. I'm an old hand at computer crashes, but never before experienced one during power-down. At least I didn't spend 15 hours on the phone to Dell trying to figure it out.

Agghh. My laptop has died. Dell you better fix it or else.

Right. Since I last wrote, let me see ... I spent all morning cooking beetroot for Jody which she promptly refused to eat (she loved it at my parents place but hey ho), then went up the Queenstown gondola to look at gorgeous views of the lake and ride the luge. The latter was particularly amusing - riding down concrete bumpy tracks on sleds-on-wheels with almost no control ... and Roj has the grazes to prove it!

By the time we got back down to town it was pretty much dinner time so we went out to Winnie Bagoes for gorgeous pizza and a chat with some Shropshire Brits who'd just emigrated to Invergargill with a 3 and a 5 year old. Brave.

The next morning we woke to horrible rain (not unusual for this holiday) and almost shelved our jetboat experience (if you've ever windsurfed in driving rain you'll know why). Luckily things had cleared up by 8:30ish though, so we did it anyway. It was all rather tame actually, despite all the hype, but I quite enjoyed it. Basically it was a quick trip up and down the river on an extremely powerful little jet boat with a few little 360 twirls thrown in. Quite impressive actually, but the amount of white-knuckled pensioners was testiment to the adrenalin thrill!

We got back into town only marginally wetter than we'd left (having expected a logflume experience) and left straightaway for our next destination - Mount Cook. Unfortunately we were beset by horrible weather once again - the most you could see of the highest mountain in Australasia was - well - nothing, and we had it on good local advice that things weren't set to change in the next 24 hours. So we decided to instead make progress on the long drive up to Kaikoura via Christchurch that we had to make the next day (today) in order to drop of the campervan, and ended up staying at a particularly dodgy campsite in somewhere nondescript which was full of permanent caravans (who does that?). To commiserate with ourselves we ate bland pasta with microwaved garlic bread and our only cold bottle of wine. It was actually better than it sounds!

So today we dropped the winebago off at Christchurch and picked up our hire car (Honda 4wd something) and headed out to Kaikoura where it looks like tomorrow's whale-watching may also be shelved due to low cloud. We're not having the best of weather for the holiday so far, that's for sure.

Bit of a quick one while I wait for Dell tech support. Might have to brave an international call at this rate. Ah well. More later.