...is that you can see the mountains on the mainland in the background.  Great pics.  Can't upload them, however, because the wireless is fried here, so I'm on their desktop..  :-( We're so sick of the camper that we can't stand it..  We turn it in tomorrow, and we decided to just get a little cottage so that we can clean the bejeezis out of the camper so it's all ready to go tomorrow.  Of course, on...

... which is my new favorite. It's dark and malty, but not hoppy at all. Very smooth and drinkable. I LOVE IT! After whale watching tomorrow, we drive to Christchurch and have our last night in the camper. Navarre's VERY happy about that. BY THE WAY, I've been trying to email Mom and Dad, so if you guys are reading this, I'm having trouble with my email program.. Entourage doesn't use any of the...

...beach down through Abel Tasman park.  We had some concerns about trying to take one of the tours, but we just lucked into a boat tour leaving at 1:30..  It was 1:06..  So we stowed our stuff in the camper really quick, and prepared to board a lovely speed boat/aqua taxi which afforded us a round trip around the whole of the park.  We had to stop and drop off/pick up lots of hikers at various beaches...

...their house." [Matt] "That's one possibility." [Mom] "If you find anything out, let me know." Is it possible for her to do her own investigations? [Friday afternoon] Subject: Winterizing her camper [Mom] "Matt, were you able to get around to the camper today?" [Matt] "Yes, but I didn't put in the camper antifreeze." [Mom] "Did you drain all the water from the pipes?" [Matt in my head] "No...

I now have a completely kitted home for the foreseeable future. Yesterday I headed out and made the last of my purchases for the van. I picked up insurance from the AA along with membership. I opted for...evening and will be spending the rest of today reading the guide book and deciding where I want to go. I think my first stop may be Castle Hills for some climbing fun, but I really haven't decided yet

is to turn a 20 year old Toyota Hiace into home for yourself. A mission which, I am pleased to report, I have succeeded with. The first step was to measure up the space available in the back of the van...less chance of an earthing being created and the electrics might survive. This proved to be a wise decision as with the curtains up (shown below) all the fuses are still functioning.

...was so great! Especailly when some strange girl -coughnicolecough- chased a car with a light saber, and when Randa wore the transformer head all night and waved at the pizza guy. Good times. And the camper was pretty awesome also, but I couldn't get back in this morning to say goodbye because the neighbors turned on the sprinklers...And lovely Nasty Water wasn't something I wanted on me at that moment...

Well it would appear that I have solved the mystery electrical failure on the van. Taking down the curtain rails and replacing all the fuses seems to have done the trick. Go me!

I got up and headed back down to Franks Commercial Cars for the second day to get the electrics sorted out in my van. The plan was to fit a cell in it and connect them up so that I would have some power...the left), the rear lights and the front side lights were all toasted when the fuses blew, along with the dashboard lights. Comments and suggestions on what's gone wrong will be greatly appreciated

Today was quite a hectic one. I woke up around 7:30 and headed round to the car dealers for 9am. The plan was to hook up with the guys there and get my van sorted out and into a camper. After a bit of waiting around Toby, the dude helping me, arrived and we formulated a plan. We were going to build a frame in the back 2m x 1.5m to hold up some sheets of plywood that the mattresses would rest upon...