This last week @#$%^

Apologies again people,as ever my promises to be better at the blog have failed miserably..................Firstly i just want to acknowledge the death of a very dear friend of mine and Shanes,only sadly for a short time but he was a huge influence and incouragement to us in going on this trip...............
Simon my darling friend ,we have loved,laughed cried and giggled.I will miss you so much and remember you always.Aroha darling ,you will be missed hugely by your family and friends.Go well and look over us with a smile.RIP

Friday 20th -Sat 21st
so after a long noisy night in the carpark we headed over to Brighton beach and stayed the day and night on a grassy knoll by the side of the road which was quiet and lovely and peaceful and again Elvis could hop out of the van onto his own beachfront playpark........... the next morning we woke early at 10.30 LOL and sat chatting to a local guy with his dogs for a while who suggested that we head over to Taieri Mouth Beach camp which turned out to be another total GEM of a place run by Diane a 78 yr old Dunedianite whpo had owned the camp for 10 or so yrs ,its tiny and very quiet and the washing machine is so fucked you have to fill it by hand.Ha Ha so funny,but it was great fun and we loved the quiet beach where i found heaps of Paua shells which is unusual,cool:)
So after a mammoth wash and dry and 3 showers in 24hrs ha ah.......................

Sunday 22nd August
we headed off back to dunedin on sunday and hung out at the museum and got shane some new sunnies for $20 a bargain had been $95.Cool we headed of really later over to the otago penninsula ,via pak and save and the warehouse to get a new fire lighter as i was ready to impale ours up someones arse.(I think i may have failed to mention that on friday morning while parked at some giant teeth on the waterfront in dunedin-WTF................we were sprayed by boulders from some hoon at 9am and he broke our windscreen and so we had to wait till tuesday to get it fixed)
So we parked up out the back of Scott Hall in near portobello ready to head off Albatross spotting......

Monday 23rd August
So monday morning we were up early walked Elvis and headed off to see some Albatross-45 Dollars they wanted each,so we had a coffe and sat in the carpark like all the other locals until one flew overhead in the carpark,Cheeky buggers.we then headed down to the scenic reserve next to piolet bay and had an altercation with a furseal,bless they are so lazy and cute.we tiki-toured aroud and didnt manage to find anywhere for Elvis to go for a run so he was fed up bless him.later that evening we headed back and sat on the beach for an hour waiting for blue penguins but failed miserably bit cest la vie.Early to bead as we had to get the windscreen done tomorrow and 4hrs walking round Dunners with Elvis arrrrrgggggggh.

Tuesday 24thAugust
So up early to have windscreen done got there to be told they wouldnt start it till 1pm so we went off for a couple of hrs to the Otago Settlers Museum.Its so cool this place far better than the other museum but is currently under refurbishment and development.They had two cool exhibitions a 70's Rumpus room and you could ferret around looking at things that made me feel very old ,and an amazing exhibition of paintings and artwork about Dunedin War Brides whuich was heartwarming sad and beautifully clever and stunning.The weathert had also been totally stunning for last 2 day
We then went back to Smith and smith via the dogs breakfast where we spent an extortionate amount on 2 cushion for me and shane as our bums were numb.Any ways it turned out that due to rust when they took windscreen out the couldnt put new one back in as needed repair work ,as youy can imagine we were beside ourself loomiong around Dunners with dog in tow and nowhere to go!@#$%^&*( oh Shit ) anyway the manager Ian was amazing did the repair work for free and let us stay around the back of the store in the van overnight Yippee-we love dunedin people they are cool.
That evening we went to The Best Cafe on lower Stuart street which is the most authentic chippie greasy spoon caff i have been too in NZ made me homesick for Scunny so it did .Lovely food and bread and butter and vineger ont tableLOL.YUMMY
we then went to the rialto cinema and had a loom around dunners in the dark,it is a completely beautiful and majestic city i havew to say i love it We went to see Michael Caine in Harry Brown.That man is a Super Star and the movie is AMAZING go and see it immediately,particularly if you enjoyed Gran Torino.
So back to the van at 11.30 TO FIND THET eLVIS HAD DESTROYED BOTH OF OUR BRAND NEW CUSHIONS BEYOND NORMAL REPAIR @#$%^&*.

Wednesday 25th August
apreety quiet day spent out and about in the freezing cold Dunners morning ,and then with our swanky new windscreen we headed off to the Art Gallery and then out of dZunedin headed back North through Palmerston and up to Shag Point where we stayed the night by State Highway one in a lovely spot by the beach.Managed to find a book shop that exchanged some books for us as our trip count stands at about 24 books to date -awesome .no tv we love it.ZShane found a classic mini manual as well,little bugger.

Thursday 26th August
Started off the day in a relaxed manner with a lay in and a trip into Mouraki to go to Fleurs Place .An award winning Restaurant full of ecclectic bric-a -brac and fossicced relics from the surrounding area.The meal lived up to all expectations .It was a treat for Shanes birthday and somthing we had planned to do all along on our trip so i really enjoyed relaxing and chatting with Fleur who is expecting a visit from her friend Rick Stein in the next few weeks when he comes back to nZ.I has groper stuffed with oysters in a cheese sauce with potatoes and vegies and Shane had Lamb Shanks with mash and a gravey to behold.We then headed off to do a little tiki tour of thee surrounding area.Headed off to look at the whalers monument and Marae in Mouraki and to a tiny village called Kaik which is literally end of the road.
We then headed back down south and just a 2-3 min drive out of mouraki decided to go to trotters gorge for a look.
A fateful descision as it turned out.............
Trotters gorge was picturesque little reserve surrounded by huge cliffs ans dense bush,the sun was shining and heeding the notes aboutr flooding in wet weather we stopped for a cuppa and a chat with an elderly guy that turned up .All was well and shane headed off to the Long Drop while i returned back to the van with Elvis .and so the nightmare began........

Elvis was following me back roaming around and just as i approached the van we both heard 3-4 huge barks and welping ..............we were both shouting and calling the puppy but no sign of him .After 2hrs it was getting dark and shane went to try and get help.Elvis has never been Bush-ever before and as it got pitch black still not a sound,By this time you can imagine we both really thought he was dead,caught by a wild pig or a trap or somthing.No cellphone reception and wild rocky treeain made it impossible to search.....................we were beside ourselves.Shane was amazing and i was a total wreck as you can all imagine.
With no tea and in sub zero temps we went to bed at ten thirty to start search at daylight.We had heard him wimpering at abot 9.30 bush bashing and climbing steep rocks to no availby this time i was verging on griefstricken asd was Shaneat 1.05 we were awoken to loud barking and crying up on the ridge but no ammount of called would bring our baby back.
shane had to jumpstart the van and headed to the only farm at the start of the gorge and woke the guy there asking desperately for help.We had rung DOC earlier but they cant do anything if its an animal.
Steve returned with shane as i had stayed to make sure Elvis knew we hadnt left him.It was the most terrible 10mins of my life i have to say.Pitch black ,Freezing cold and damp and Elvis wailing and crying .
Steve knew the area well and at 4oclock ion the pitch black with our torches failing Steve went upo a second toime and managed to find Elvis .He brought him down off a rockface where he had got lost and stuck ,but then he stopped following Steve and shot off terrified and cold in the dark.with nothing left to do till daylight at 4.15am we went back to bed.to start searchind at daybreak.Just as we turned off the lights we heard the familiar rattle of a collar and a whimper very close by and as Shane opened the door our little boy leapt into the van.HE WAS HOME.And not a scratch on him.We were both sobbing with delight.............OMG what a total and utter Nightmare.With the puppy safely tucked up in bed between us we finally slept at 5am.

Friday 27th August
another glorious day we woke at 7am as Steve came back to continue the search.He was completely amazing and we cant repay his kindness,Bless him.We headed over to Herbert just north of Mouraki to the most stunning forest camp and that is where i am writing the blog now.The van was a total mud filled disaster and me and shane desperately needed showert ans sleep.The camp is beautiful and after 6 loads of washing and a huge clearout and spring clean we finally settled.Elvis roamed around being his own disobedient serlf.Our plan for the day had originally been to go to the races at Oamaru but we weere exhausted so we plugged in to recharge our gear and re-group and watched a DVD and cooked a meal and turned the kitchen into a chinese laundry,I am sitting here in the van watching both my boys cuddled up together under the duvet like loves young dream and life is sweet again.We had a beer to remember our friend Simon who was buried today and then we slept.

Saturday 28th August.
Its raining !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Yuck and with a serious amount of still very wet clothes and towels we are gonna finally go and explore Oamaru .We sailed through there the other day and didnt get to see it.Our plans for the next week are to go have a look around central otago following the rail trail,not on bikes its too wet and cold and Elvis is hopeless on a push bike LOL.Its 9;15 and i need a coffee and brekkie.The people here have been lovely and there dpog and elvis are now friends.and they have two really cute pigs that we fed lastnight.CUTE.Ok enough of our ramblings.Catch you later