Jaysus, how many birthdays!!!!

One of Lisa's shots from the Pelorus mid-winter fireworks in celebration ...

Big birthday wishes from the south of the North Island to those in the Northern hemisphere celebrating their days:

• Phil, 35, who'd have believed it (btw, the mis-understanding with the text messaging has been cleared up)
• Marion and Dave - the twins turn 35 too, I raise my glass of T in celebration
• Vinnie, sure might as well mention him but he'll never see this ;o)
• Irene and Maureen - more twins, a Tia Maria and diet Coke all round me thinks
• Tim, hope the weather in Vancouver was great, and you had a cigar and port (Lisa! put down that cigar)
  

We hope you all had/are having/will have a fantastic time on your birthdays, needless to say we'll be starting the celebrations 11 hours in advance, woohoo.

Right, back to surviving the howling Southerlies and torrential rain, 34 degress, bah humbug. Who needs bbqs?

Finally a post!!!!

Those with good memories will remember we were here before (not visiting Rivendell), this is one of the other parts of the park

You know you're in trouble when even your computer hating brother is mentioning the fact that the blog hasn't been updated for a while! Really bad how lazy you can get. So to make up for it there should be a whole raft of updates over the next 48 hours - including the photos of Clyde's home renovations (I'll let Mazzie adopt the shelter dog in future!).

Anyway, have just come back from a six hour hike in the lower hills of the Tararuas. Considering we've had over 600mm of rain this week and winds of over 146 kmph (no neither of those was a typo), I really wasn't sure if I fancied a walk in the woods - I can hear the Fat Walkers calling me a wimp from here!

Right so, anyway, Saturday, awoke without a cloud in the sky and the call of the wild had me in the car at an ungodly hour of the morning - what the hell ever happened to sleep ins?

You can see some of the photos here for yourselves, but the walk was very cool. Went up to 700m through rain forest and considering the amount of rain throughout the week the conditions were pretty good.

At this stage I should mention a big "Hullo" to Jackie and Phil who were busily drunken texting me whilst I stood on the hill top surveying the landscape - Guys you's have loved it, sorry Phil no bovine porn for miles :o(

Great way to spend a Saturday. Someone has offered me a crew position on a yacht tomorrow, but I'll probably spend it in the basement laying some polythene sheeting - sorry was that too much detail.

A fond good night to one and all from NZ.

D & L

PS Note the tree colours - it's winter here but no one seems to have mentioned this to the trees, it's like spring at home!

And on to the photos ....

Me thinks they planted the wrong trees!

Honest this is Winter.

You can see the snow on the Tararuas in the background.

Arty shot - Phil do I have a chance of becoming an artist?