Well, It's been a long time since our lat post! After Rupert's last convalescence and revival we settled in and stayed in Wellington for over a week which was wonderful. In a fit of bitterness about rupert's last tantrum we posted an ad trying to sell the cranky breadbox "van" and had three half-hearted responses. One guy wanted to know all the details about rupert including "how many kms on the clock, any problems, any rust, condition of the tyres, how economical it is with fuel, what kind of stereo eg cassette/cd, and anything else you can think of that might interest us." Well, my first response was laughing in this guys face because, honestly, if he is that concerned about the details of the van he does not want this van. We finally decided to stick with the barely-motorized wreck that is our van because in his own difficult way, he's exacted a kind of wary attachment from us. He's currently resting safely in a car park by the ferry dock in Picton while we enjoy the hell out of the extra days left of Margarett's dad's rental car which has, among other incredibly novel attributes, functional brakes and the ability to accelerate. Amazing.

Our Cuba Street Carnival decorations

Margarett has come to terms with her fundamental non-outdoorsiness after being rescued by a thirteen year old boy after drifting a surprisingly far distance down the Wanganui river without her boat. She also lost her shoes, sunglasses, shirt, and dignity, but gained some very clean fingernails and a healthy fear of trees. I, on the other hand, had a lovely float down the river IN my kayak and had a delicious cup of coffee with an old lady who owned a lavender farm where I used the phone to summon the thirteen year old hero. We had a long conversation about Obama while I waited for Margarett to catch up.

Rainy day kayaking

After our little jaunt down the river we went back to Wellington where Margarett's dad met us and we began our light-speed tour of the South Island in order that he saw as much as possible in 6 days. We made it all the way down to Dunedin by Tuesday seeing the Christchurch Antarctic Museum, penguin feeding, the Moraki Boulders, and the Albatross Colony along the way. I don't think we stopped anywhere for more than 30 minutes except to sleep and drink wine. Thoroughly enjoyable and we are considering this to be our preview for the trip we will now take at a crippled snail's pace.

First though, we are going to do the Abel Tasman over this weekend which is going to be absolutely amazing.