Ah, hello there! I feel it is important that I share with you news of our continuing relentless rise up through the social strata of New Zealand. Nick and I last week briefly rejoined the ranks of the NZ working world, doing what can only be described as one of the most intellectually stimulating and personally satisfying employment opportunities available throughout the entire country. Yes, it was even better than hotel housekeeping. We spoke to our temping agency last Monday morning, and they informed us that, yes, they did have work for us. Hooray. They told us that it was going to be ‘sorting bits of different coloured plastic’. In hindsight, perhaps we should have stopped believing that the minute that we found that their directions to our workplace sent us out to totally the wrong side of Christchurch. Anyway, we eventually got to the correct place, where we were filled with a mild sense of foreboding when we realised that it was in fact a recycling depot. Yes, we spent a week sorting rubbish. We stood at a conveyor belt and, as the refuse passed in front of us, it was our weighty responsibility to remove the steel and aluminium cans and throw them into the appropriate receptacles. Nick at one point (by virtue of one of the more highly-trained professionals cutting himself) was promoted to milk bottles and plastic soft drinks’ bottles, which required much greater skill and accuracy as these were thrown down various different chutes. The glamour of this particular employment opportunity was indeed still not enhanced by the yellow gloves, orange earplugs, and ‘High-Vis’ fluorescent jackets that we were required to wear. However, on the positive side, the day did seem to pass very quickly, which was undoubtedly why we managed to stick it for a week.
After that trauma had ended on Thursday afternoon (thank Goodness for Good Friday public holiday), we had the joy of a ridiculously long drive up to Auckland. We were to catch the 8am ferry to Wellington from Picton (350km from Christchurch) on Friday morning. So, we set off through solid C’ch traffic and drove for 6 hours (I say drove, the first hour was more of a crawl), arriving finally at an appropriate kerbside campsite at 11.30 that night. Straight to sleep, then woke up at 6.30 to go to the ferry, I having woken up with a stinking cold. Once on the ferry, we discovered that the $1 hot chocolate was surprisingly good and that the pies had good anti-cold restorative properties, and by the time Wellington and 11.30 came, I felt much stronger. This was lucky, as of course the entire population of the capital was departing for a Good Friday drive north at exactly the time we left the ferry. Another long drive involving lots of bumper-to-bumper time, and we reached Lake Taupo at about 5pm. We stopped here for the night, and after a brief drama when a solo skydiver nearly landed on our van (and instead landed on the rather narrow shoreline), and a very quickly rustled-up supper, I was in bed by 6.35 and asleep by 7.30!
My cold felt much better after 12 hours’ sleep, and we were able to set off good and early for the final leg to Auckland, now only 300km away. We made it in time for a late lunch - thanks be for the much better road as you approach Auckland - and organised ourselves with a campsite for the following night, then set off for a brief rendezvous with our friend Jen, who was in Auckland with the basketball team she physios for. Great to see her, and then the next day we were able to spend most of the day sleeping and eating (in approximately equal proportions) in preparation for our big night out!
The Rolling Stones were amazing! The venue was a big speedway arena, with seating on the concrete area directly in front of the stage, and then the rest of us scuffers had to stand on the hill behind said seating area. The hill was rather steep - we reckoned a gradient of approaching 40 degrees - but we found a great place where we could see whether we or the people in front of us were sitting down or standing up. There was a degree of apprehension in sitting at the bottom of a steep hill with a couple of thousand - mainly drunk - people behind you, but we evidently didn’t get squashed, and we were able to enjoy the concert with only the mild disadvantage of our toes going numb as they were forced into the front of our shoes and our knees going a bit shaky as they were bent for two hours! Mick was on full bendy-dancing form, and there were spectacular fireworks, lighting displays, great songs, and even a time when the central portion of the stage slid right out into the centre of the expensive seating area. Brilliant! Nick and I are still chatting away about it.
And since then… Well, very little. Further job searching, and generally lazing around a lot. Enjoying the weather up here though - 25 degrees yesterday, it’s just beautiful. Although that does mean the mozzies are still active up here - I am being bitten to death again and Nick has one bite which is looking a touch infected, so we are back on the Vitamin B. Yum!
Right, the van’s free parking time is about to expire so I’d best dash and move it around the corner. Thrills of our days at the moment! Lots of love to you all and hope you all had a great Easter break. Vic and Nick.

P.S. - Has taken me numerous attempts to publish this so it's a little out of date but we really have no news since then. Will write more when we have something to report!