Two lessons for the day: if you have just spent a good half hour or more writing a blog entry, make sure you make a copy of it before uploading to the web, lest it be swallowed & lost forever.  Lesson two: if you feel a large creature crawling up your arm in the middle of the night, wake up & kill the bastard before it spins a web all over your face.

Right - to resume the task of removing festive greetings from the blog... It's been a long while since I wrote anything up, so this may be a tad long (apologies to anyone with a short attention span).  Since departing Stewart Island, I've had a lot of interesting experiences & have done quite a bit of travel.

First up was the roadtrip up the East Coast - destination: Nelson.  After picking up the pimpmobile from long-term storage in Bluff on the mainland, I promptly hopped in and headed towards the forested & remote sea-side coast known as the Catlins.  Filled with stunning beaches, sheer cliffs, forest & field, I gradually made my way through the main tourist attractions.  Highlights had to be the petrified forest (ancient fossilised wood on the coast); porpoise Bay (surpisingly enough with its porpoises playing in the surf); Kaka Point with its penguins & seals; and Nugget Point with its seal colonies down the bottom of massive cliffs (actually quite reminded me of Howth).  Stayed in various hostels, the best being an old farmhouse which only had two guests: me & another girl who came from China (or was it India?..) as far as I remember.  I remember getting up at the crack of dawn to watch sunrise the next morning, only to be greeted by an unexpected wave of low-cloud & drizzle.  Now awake, I decided to pack up & head North again...

Next stop: Dunedin.  I spent four nights here, this time opting for a hostel in the town centre.  Time was spent frequenting various night spots in the city; driving around the Otago Peninsula (the last time I was there was quite bleak in the depths of winter - this time it was blistering hot) and spotting a few more yellow-eyed penguins; watching the sea-lions chase unsuspecting tourists with their dogs on the surf beach of St.Clair.  Now recharged & ready to drive again, I headed in the direction of Christchurch.

Passing swiftly through any towns on the way & bypassing Christchurch itself (which I have to admit I'm not a big fan of), I headed to the stunning Banks Peninsula.  There's a summit road which stretches all the way out to Akaroa (an old French port) and along the way you have the option of dropping into any of the numerous secluded bays.  Many kilometers were clocked up doing such trips - in most cases, you need permission to cross private land to reach the beaches.  I spent many an afternoon fishing from the cliffs with nobody else for miles - only seals playing & sleeping beside me (after some initial confrontations & a few chases).  Unfortunately I didn't get as much as a single bite.

After spending a few nights here (which reminded me much of North Mayo), I decided to head towards Kaikoura, the capital of whale & dolphin spotting.  A pretty touristy town with plenty to do.  The heat was something else & got quite sizzled while wandering for miles up the coast past seal colonies & running past nesting gulls (whilst waving my t-shirt at the dive-bombing variety).  Decided to make the effort to go whale viewing, so spent the money & off I went.  It turned out to be a bit like a cat & mouse chase - stopping every so often to suss out the situation (listening for whale echoes using some fancy apparatus) & then racing to the most-likely point where the whale would resurface.  We were quite lucky in that we all got to see two distinct Sperm Whales & I managed to capture some pretty good tail shots as they redived to the depths (which amazingly go down to 2000m - there's a massive canyon exteremly close to the East Coast: hence the large number of different species of whales).  Met up with my crazy French friend Pierre for the last night in Kaikoura & spent the evening in an open-air spa in the pissing rain.

Next morning: Blenheim, the wine-growing capital of the South Island.  Only spent one night here (nothing much happened here) before heading towards Nelson via the stunning Marlborough Sounds.  Arrived in the arty (and quite quaint) city of Nelson just in time for Christmas.

Christmas Day was spent in the Green Monkey hostel (cheers to all the crew for a great Christmas stay!) and much fun was had barbecuing, swimming on the beach & playing various games including touch frisby.  Even received a gift: a squeaky kiwi key-ring which now hangs in the inside of my car.  Met up with tonnes of friends & others from all-over.  Drunken merry times were had.  After spending a good week in the area, I headed out towards Motueka to meet up with Madeleine who was working on an orchard.  After a few days free lodging, I eventually managed to land a job apple-thinning.  Only lasted about three weeks: my mind couldn't take any more numbing.

New Years' was spent at a 3-day dance festival on Takaka Hill.  Bought a huge tent in the Warehouse for little or nothing (was brought back by someone because of a fault, but because the fault was never recorded & hence nobody knew what was wrong with it, it was sold for a mere 30 dollars. As it turned out, only two small & trivial clips were broken - nothing fatal.  Sold it a few weeks later for double the money spent..)  Ended up camping close to the action with five others (and girls at that: lucky me!) & managed to smuggle some alcohol into the non-alcohol event.  Was an amazing experience.  I had never been to a rave festival before & so it was quite interesting.  The weather was shocking: rainy and cold - however it did add to the eeriness of it all, especially at night time when lights would shine through the mist & creep out through the trees in the distance.  Spent much time wandering about in the woods & bush with the torch, dancing all the way.  The music didn't stop for one second until 3 days later when eventually the sun came out & dried our drenched tents.  Roll on Uprising 07!

So: where am I now?! I'm currently in Golden Bay and more specifically in Onekaka near the famous Mussel Inn, where until recently you could swap a possum tail for a pint (possums are a non-native species that tear through tonnes of bush every year & hence considered a pest) - the day before I arrived, the 5000th free pint was supplied - a final landmark for the concept.  I'm doing some WWOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) with a local couple who grow their own vegetables & own a willow weaving business - here's the web site: http://www.willowworks.com.  Basically I work 4 hours a day (willow-weeding, other gardening, some cooking - general helping out I guess) in exchange for an awesome room & really tasty meals.  It's a fantastic experience & it's fascinating to watch an artisan work at his craft, weaving various baskets from the willow farmed on location.  I'm having extreme amounts of fun in the hot sunshine - roaming the quiet beaches, camping, fishing (with normal rods & those made from forest branches!), going on road-trips to stunning bays & frequenting the odd local party... I'll probably stay here a bit longer & then move my reluctant ass to the North Island before my visa runs out! 

So there you have it: a trip to Golden Bay is a must if you ever come to New Zealand.  Watch out for the massive spiders and remember to save all your work on the ol computer as you go along....