On the road again Part 1

Olla,

Firstly, an apology for not being in touch, we are currently in Nelson (north of the south island) and are off down the west coast in our little home. Our phone signal and access to the internet are both very limited but we are both fine and dandy.

We spent a week in Wellington since our last blog, where we painted the town red, went to see the Wellington Phoenix play football, went to various beaches and spent time with David, Tina and the kids. It has been lovely weather (aside from the wellington winds) and we've both enjoyed an excuse to feed ducks, play in playgrounds and generally play the fool with Noah and Bos.

After a smooth (and vomit free) ferry journey to the South Island, we caught up with Ash's friend Ben from P'mouth and had a swim'n'aBBQ.

Bongo is doing well, he has kept us warm and is fairly comfy to sleep and live in.

Now we are sitting in the library and in a minute Ashley is hoping to go fishing with his new expensive rod and reel from the refuse centre. I'm not sure if we mentioned it last time but Wellington's Trash Palace (rubbish tip shop bit) is good fun, we've bought lots of bits from it. Check it out when you come here... it's got to be one of NZ's best tourist attractions... surely.

Love to all,

Kay'n'Ash

xxx

West Bound then down... [rolling up and trucking?]

Kia Ora!

Firstly we must tell you all that Kay has put up our photos to date on her facebook page, please feel free to add Kay as a friend (search Kayleigh Brand) and have a look through the thousands of snaps. We have resorted to using facebook as it is fairly easy to access, if you're not on facebook then follow this link to start using it, all you need do is start an account and search for either Kay or Ash in the top right search bar (by full name).

http://www.facebook.com/

We last left you (those of you still reading this blog, that is) in Hawera at Denver's house which turned out to be a very strange place indeed. Denver, a lovely man, made us feel very much at home and introduced us to his all very friendly friends. We spent 2 days there and decided to head further south by bus during a visit to Wanganui... The bus route took us along the rest of the west coast down to bulls where we hopped onto a second bus which took us to Paremata. This is the home of Maura and Basil and is where we have been based for the last few days.

Over the last few days we have been on the hunt for a campervan/van/car/box with wheels/big skateboard.... we have ventured to numerous car lots, web-sites and even to a thoroughly enjoyable car auction (for those of you who are aware of Ashley's eBay tendencies you will be glad to know he managed to refrain from buying anything this time!).

After a few days of searching and quickly lowering our expectations we have found our new home. He is currently parked outside Maura and Basil's home and is called Bongo. Kay shall be putting photos of Bongo up on Facebook over the next day or two as the transformation from boring people-mover to 'extraordinary new living headquarters' takes place.

Aside from the car hunt we have also visited Wellington and taken a jaunt to the Te Papa national museum (where we saw the Collosus Squid.... it's pretty big, but collosus??... I've seen bigger...) and also caught the new Baz Lurhman(?) film, Australia, at a quirky village cinema with sofa's and ice cream.

Anyways we hear that it has been a bit chilly in the UK and hasten to add that we're feeling it over here too, in fact we've both been wearing jumpers today, well it is only:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0095

Take care and keep warm.

Lots of love

Kay'n'Ash
xxx

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Hello!

I think this might be a long update as we've been away from the web for some time now. The last thing we mentioned in the blog was leaving Thailand....

So, Singapore... It's clean, safe, hot, expensive, pretty small and easy to get around.

We spent 3 days there (after some passport issues at immigration... it's no fun sitting in a little room being stared at and having your finger prints taken.... Singapore didn't like me). We charged about on the metro seeing the sights. We visited Sentosa Island and stayed in Little India. We saw the Christmas lights on orchard road and listened to some a capella christmas carols.... Nice.

On to New Zealand, and after some panicing about not being allowed in (passport issues again) we arrived on Christmas Day at about 1 in the morning. We checked into a flash hotel in the CBD and went to a tapas restraunt for a semi-christmas dinner. On boxing day we headed over to Waiheke Island for 10 days or so. Andrew and Mariana's wedding was fantastic and it was super to spend a few days with them, Gary and Leigh, David and Tina, the kids and of course, Adam (and the purple dragons)... Good times.

Highlight of the trip so far was swimming in the sea at 2 in the morning after the wedding in a cloud of algae bloom which phosphoresced, fosforessed, phosforessed, phossfofofo - glowed, glowwed... oh well it was amazing, trully stunning. Go and find some.

We've got to dash again as we have invaded Denver's house near New Plymouth and are taking up his internet.... Will finish this post off later on.

Happy New Year everyone!!! Big Love x x x