Well hello there.....I have just realised that I am writing this entry on 13 December and cannot believe that Christmas is only 12 days away. Very odd - keep seeing Christmas trees and hearing cheesy Christmas tunes in shops, but it just doesn't feel like that time of year. Col's friends in Melbourne that we are staying with over Christmas are having a festive bash on the 23rd though so if we were not feeling festive beforehand, I am sure we will be after that. Anyway, I digress. After my last email we spent 5 days on Easter Island, the most remote inhabited island in the world. This really is a truly fascinating place, with over three hundred mysterious stone carved "moai" statues scattered all over this volcanic island. We trekked round most of the island, seeing stunning volcanic craters, old villages built during the "birdman" cult in the last century (basically this cult involved macho life risking challenges of local young men, the winner of such challenge being crowned the "birdman" for the following year) and many of these huge moai statues. The statues were carved hundreds of years ago, no-one really knows when. They were carved by the indigenous tribes almost as tombstones for any of the tribal chiefs and important people when they died. These statues were all carved from volcanic rock and dragged to coastal locations (normally), where they were erected, generally facing inland, to preside over and protect the local communities. Bearing in mind these statues were carved up to 20+ metres tall, it must have taken a huge amount of manpower not just to carve them in the first place, but to move them and erect them in their chosen location. At the volcanic quarry where the statues were carved, some statues can be seen half carved in the side of the hill and still in their horizontal position, abandoned mid-creation. No-one really knows why the carving of these statues stopped, but one legend says that the islanders began to starve and as a result, the remaining islanders resorted to cannibalism, leaving at one stage a mere 50 people on the island. This obviously put paid to any more carving! We met many of the local "Rapa Nui" indigenous descendents who were lovely and resent the Chileans coming over and claiming their island. When camping in torrential rain one night, we were rescued by a lovely (if not humungous) park ranger and his wife who let us eat our tea in their house by candlelight, while they taught us some "Rapa Nui" words and told us about their encounters with Kevin Costner when he was over filming the B list epic film "Rapa Nui" on the island in 1994. Amusing evening. After leaving Easter Island, we then spent about a week between Tahiti and New Caledonia. These were lovely to see but hugely expensive. Both our flights to these islands arrived in the middle of the night, and with the only form of transport in to the nearby towns costing silly amounts, we resorted to spending two nights kipping in the airport. Highly reminiscent of student travels... We had fun there despite the excessive costs and Col got a couple of hours windsurfing in New Caledonia which he was very pleased about. Uncle Al and Ally, we thought of you guys when we saw all the kitesurfers out doing there thing...we were tempted to have a lesson but then saw how much it cost! We arrived in New Zealand a few days ago to experience the most anally retentive customs policies in the world. Having signed our customs declaration and made sure we declared our tent and hiking boots etc so they could be "decontaminated", we were ushered to proceed to the X-ray point. My bag was taken aside, but convinced I had no fresh food products in my bag, i smugly stood there waiting for the search to finish. To my surprise, they produced a big juicy red apple from the bottom of my bag which had been there from New Caledonia. I apoogised profusely and explained that we had merely forgotten about this innocent little piece of fruit. I expected to by given a slap on the wrist, to have the apple confiscated and ushered on through. But alas, NO !! Two police like customs officers came over and very patronisingly, asked me to confirm that I had read and understood the declaration form before I signed it. I obediently gave all the right answers but was then told that in New Zealand it is an automatic strict liability offence ("strict liability" would have meant nothing to me had it not been for my job!) to bring any fresh produce into the county, even unwittingly. This offence, I was told was going to cost us 200$NZ...for one measly apple! This amounts to a whopping 76.69 pounds - more than a driving offence in Britain. We were both pretty outraged, but ended up having to pay up. Funnily enough, just this morning I was reading an article about how the NZ Government's cash reserves are burgeoning and suggestions have been made that they give every NZ citizen a free turkey for Christmas as a pay back.....I am just wondering where all that money is coming from? Anyway, our day improved rapidly after that and a Kiwi couple we met on the airport truck in Tahiti came and picked us up from the airport and insisted we stayed at their place. They invited some friends round and cooked a big roast and we all drank plentiful amounts of red wine, soon forgetting about our apple trauma. We now have a hire car and are driving round the south island, stopping to camp wherever. It's nice having the backpacks in the boot of the car and not having to lug them around all the time. We stopped in Kaikoura the other day and went swimming with dusky dolphins in the open sea. This was amazing. They are such beautiful creatures and being privileged enough to see them in their natural environment and have hundreds of them swimming past you and circle round you really was pretty special. One English woman couldnt stop crying when she got back on the boat as she was so moved by the whole experience ! I wasn't quite at that stage, but was fairly overexcited by the whole thing and the sight of them doing somersaults and backflips right infront of us. Tried to get some good pics, but they move so flippin' (har har, like the crap pun?) fast. A couple of the attempts are attached however. We then drove up to Kaiteriteri, a little village on the edge of Abel Tasmen national park. We went sea kayaking yesterday up the coast of the park, which was beautiful. It was a lovely sunny day until a big south westerly wind got up in the afternoon and paddling back towards Kaiteriteri became seriously tiring contest against the wind with fairly big waves. Our guide then realised it would take us till after dark to kayak back, so we ended up getting a water taxi back the last part. Feeling a bit sore over my back and shoulders today so probably just as well... Anyway, enough of my ramblings. You will all probably be right in the middle of all the Christmas parties and the livers will be starting to wonder what's going on. Hope you are having fun and please all have a big mulled vino and mince pie for us ! Col has been loving the famous New Zealand "pies" so he doesn't need any festive mince ones as well. Will write again before Christmas as our cyber Christmas card but take care in the meantime and feel free to write with any comical chat from your Christmas escapades.

Bye for noo. x PS. As you will see, we have added some pics for your amusement. Also added a few to the previous entry (including the one of the Bariloche chocolate !). PPS. Andrew and Yvonne, we have tried emailing you a couple of times but it keeps bouncing back. Can you leave us a note of your correct email address on your next message on the website pleease? Ta