New Zealand

We are now in what was originally to be our final country, New Zealand. After spending a day puttering about in Sydney, recovering from the heat of Uluru, we headed off on our Quantas flight into Wellington. All was pretty straightforward, apart from the usual customs debacle, which Oz and NZ seem to really go in for. They are so careful about importing disease into the country (fair enough, I suppose) that you have to declare EVERYTHING. Walking boots are taken away and cleaned, tents unpacked and any food item is thoroughly checked. It was at this point that Andy realised he was in the embarrassing situation of having to declare a bottle of 100% fat free salad dressing. Not a very manly thing to be caught smuggling in to the land of the Maoris, rugby union and tramping through mountains and forests... The customs officer managed to swallow his laughter and kindly did not part Andy from the beloved dressing.
After a very brief stay in the YHA in Wellington, of about 6 hours, we were up and out by 7am to catch the ferry to the South Island. It was a really long and tiring day - the ferry didn't arrive until 11.30 and then we got a train to Christchurch which was horribly late and didn't arrive until 8pm. The Kiwi rail authority makes the UK look like commuting heaven. We suffered through around half a dozen pathetic excuses for why we were stopped or doing 5mph; the communications were down and the driver had no mobile coverage, there'd been a lightning strike, a derailing, one of the road crossings wasn't working, there was a Kiwi on the line (okay I made the last one up)... Eventually we were met in Christchurch by Matt, a friend of Andy's from Kabul who kindly picked us up. We are buying his Toyota van off him today, which we are going to, with his help, kit out to give us accomodation and a means of transport for the 6 weeks we are here. Photos of our new home to follow....