The South Island and Whites Bay

After two days of idling around Wellington (we did some shopping - Su bought prezzies and I bought a book - I've read Harry Potter in two days) we got the ferry over to Picton on the South Island of New Zealand. We hung around Picton for a while to stock up on the essentials (Shhhhpuds, Shhhhalad, and Shhhausages) and made out way down the south-east coast to the Whites Bay DOC Recreation Reserve where we were promised (according to the DOC Conservation Campsites booklet), hot showers, picnic areas, and bins for our increasing rubbish. The showers were cold unfortunately and were housed in "Blair Witch" style concrete loos which Su had a problem going in to after dark (not that I blame her) and there were no bins but don't get us wrong, we weren't complaining. The setting was, again, lovely:

Su rustled up yet another fantastic meal (10 points to those who can guess what it was? Spuds, Salad, and..... SAUSAGES!) I tell you - that woman can make the best meals out of the most basic of ingredients - she should make her mother proud) and then we settled down to a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy on the laptop (can you believe that McDreamy was already married!! We were shocked!! I think I need some male company soon...). Between episodes we had a peek out the curtain to see the moon rising. Very rose-mantic!

Getting the new battery for Hyacinth in Rotorua has been a Godsend - it has been 9 days now without plugging in and today has been the first time the 'electric' has run out. After spending another day in Whites Bay getting burned to a crisp (well - I did, Su had the good sense to put on sun screen early enough. I'm ok though - don't worry about me...), we headed further south along the east coast to Kaikoura to plug in to a campsite, recharge Hyacinth, and hit the town. Once we got to Kaikoura we stopped off at a seafood barbecue and had a lunch of Crayfish fritters, garlic Scallops, and garlic Mussels - TAS-TEE! We also met an Irish couple (Ken and Lorraine) who have been to a lot of the places we are planning to go to and updated us on the hip-hop-happening places to go in South-East Asia. So here we are now in the campsite - the fridge is up to full strength again, the beers are nice and cold, Su has had the hot shower she has been looking forward to since Wellington, I've got the blog up-to-date, we're both healthy and happy and life is good. We're treating ourselves to a meal tonight so fish and chips it is. Hope everyone is getting on well at home and you're enjoying the updates! Be sure to leave comments - it's always nice to hear from everyone!