Hello! I am aware it has been a very long time since I wrote a blog post, which I am very sorry about. I know it is the highlight of all your days and you are all literally on the edge of your seat every time you open your laptop in the hope I have written something new.

So here is a short post. The reason, to say a big THANK YOU!!!!!! to all the lovely birthday messages I received! It’s so so nice reading them on the other side of the world.

I had an interesting day. The night before I park up at a lake to camp overnight, with the plan to wake up early and watch the sunrise over a nice steaming bowl of nutella porridge. I couldn’t sleep for a long time but luckily theres a skylight in the van so I just watched the stars… Of course I eventually fell asleep, then the clouds snuck up on me and I woke up to low cloud and rain and no sun. booooooo.

So instead I went to Hotikika, poddled around the museum to learn more about the book I’m reading (The Lumineries - It’s taken me 2 years to get into but I’m finally THERE) and bought some super expensive earrings.

I then drove up the west coast (again,this is a beautiful drive with the sea one side and mountains the other - though all I saw was rain and clouds…) to Nelson to meet a friend and drink lots of wine and skype lots of family which was a lovely way to end the day.

So this blog is now over 6 weeks behind where I am now…. but DO NOT FEAR! For I will be updating it much more frequently now (ish). So expect stories of all things South Island; mountains, beaches, woofers, hitchers, tramping, lakes mountains, sandflies, stern Germans, nice Germans, penguins, seals, dolphins, fiords, flights, mountains, glaciers, steampunk, trolley racing, more steampunk, a human hampster wheel and even a sneaky little trip north to the other Land Down Under!

Watch this space….. ;)

In the meantime here are some frankly awful selfies of me in different places having a great time.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be one of those people that puts on that makeup stuff and takes a dozen selfies a day… then I remember that the world around me is much better than my silly reflection and if anyone wants to judge me on my beautifully unkempt appearance and (by now) fairly stained clothes the can quite frankly do one.