It is just tooooo damn hot for me and what do you know, on the second last day of my year away I get burnt on my belly. I've been trying all year to do that. I hurts like hell though. We've been in Malaysia for aboiut a week now and it is great. Loads of shopping and loads of fine dining and lounging by the pool and Jet Skiing and failed atempts at wake boarding. Tons of cds and dvds and stuff :). I'l be home on sunday morning some time. I'll have a round up of the year away post then.   Sya

Sorry for the sharpish post yesterday but I was pushed for time. I spent most of my hour on the net yesterday trying to get an LDAP server working on OSX so that I could use the same address book for Thunderbird as AddressBook.app. No luck as it happens, I'll have to look into it a bit more. OpenLdap.org seems pretty good though with Slapd ldap server. Auckland is pretty good but I'm just looking forward to Malaysia at the moment. We went to the casino last night which was a blast (didn't win anything though). Anyway next post will probably be from Malaysia so Sya….

Now in Auckland having a ball, and on Saturday morning we head off for KL.. I can't wait Sya

Killer Kilo—- One Kilo of meduium rare rump steak, one giant protion of chips, one huge salad and a bucket of peppercorn sauce. That my friends is the Steak challenge in “Tounge and Groove” in Taupo (where I am now). If you can finish the entire meal you get it for 50% of the original price. It took me 50 minutes and a jug of beer but I did and I am still suffering. I went for a pint after but couldn't drink it as there was no room, I had to leave a nearly untouched pint.. I was gutted. It was the fullest I have ever been in my life. All the chips is the worst part of it, soo filling.

Asides from stuffing my face, Taupo is great, we went swimming in thermally heated pools yesterday (up to 41 degrees Celcius) , we wandered around a thermally actuve area with bubbling mud and everything. great stuff.

We are now in the North Island of New Zealand in Wellington (also known as Middle Earth) and having a grand time (Loads of Internet Cafes 😉 ). Tonight we are going to watch "Return of the King" which should be good as I bought the other two on DVD and watched them in the van. We went on the Whale watch in Kaikoura and we got to see a huge Sperm whale which was amazing (I have loads of photos but I was too impatient and missed the crucial one of the tail flipping up in the air as he dove 🙁 ) and we also saw about 80 Dusky dolphins who were absolutrely off their heads every one of them, all doing flips and jumps and dives and twirls… It was like a something(I can't think what t was like but t was great). Anyway I'm off to take some photos of stuff in Wellington so Sya.

 We are now in Kaikoura, just north of Christchurch where we are going to spend a few days and if the weather picks up we will go on a whale watching cruise. I have seen whales close up in Norway when I was younger (So close I was afraid they would drag me out if they got caught on my fishing hook. The whales here are different (much bigger) so I am looking forward to that. Yesterday we were in Nelson (not much going on there) and went to the cinema to see Monster….. It was really good and it only amazing the change in appearance of Charlize Theron (from stunner to minger). I recommend it ^. I have been doing a bit of work on the Aggreg8 project and that is coming along quite nicely. I have also started my application to BAE Graduate Scheme in England which I would really like to get…. I'll probably update again when we get to Wellington (North Island) on Friday. Sya.. Thanks for the text Ste.

Today we went on a HeliHike which involved getting a helicopter up to the top of Fox Glacier and hiking for 2 hours seeing all the wonderfull Crevases, Ice Falls, Moulins and Ice Caves. It was fantastic.It was absolutely amazing

 We have decided to splash out and go on a "Helihike" tmorrow. We get to go up to the most interesting part of the Fox Glacier in a Helicopter and then wander arund in the ice falls and ice caves. It is going to cost NZ$235 each which isn't too much considering what is included. I can't wait …. Weather dependent we head off at 9am tomorrow morning…..sya

Hey Ho Everybody… I'm now in Wanaka (say it quick enough 🙂 ). We are here for a couple of days before we head up to the glaciers. We have now crossed the country 3 times and have truly travelled the southern half of the south island. It's been great fun but the looming issue of getting a job when I get home is starting to piss me off. Ah well, I still have about 2 months left … glamour. Sya

Dunedin was a bit crap.. we went out and for a university town, it had very few pubs and only one that had any people in and that turned out to be a jazz bar and we all know how much Gill loves her Jazz. We are in Oamaru now which is even more dead, Saturday today and all the shops in the place were closed????????. There was also an internet cafe… consisting of ONE PC which wasn't even turned on :)… Bloody rednecks..