Glacier or no glacier

You know I have no idea what day of the week it is when I write this blog.  I write offline, so look up the date and put it at the top of the file.  Its only then I can see the day.  So today is Wednesday, god doesnt time fly by.

This afternoon has been a hard time.  Actually things started off badly today, as put the phone on charge last night, only to wake up this morning to find it no longer worked!  Not sure what problem is but looks fairly dead.  Slightly disappointing (there are other ways I could put it...) as last week bought a New Zealand sim card which made it cheap for international phone calls (about 18p a minute according to one site, but I think its nearer 40p myself). Anyhow doesnt matter now as no phone!  Not sure how much this concerns me at present, as we didnt have much of a reception anyway, but would be nice to know people could contact us if they wanted.  There is always email I suppose.

hard to bring such young children on holiday

Anyway, I have been distracted, yes this afternoon was hard as today has rained all day long.  The first day of our holiday this has happened (not bad for being away nearly a month).  So both kids, both adults, one motorhome = disaster waiting to happen!! Actually wasnt so bad, as me and Steve seemed to have silently decided best not to wind each other up, so just the 2 kids doing the winding...The motorhome is too small for Matthew, in fact I think a football field is too small for Matthew at present!  And Lloyd isnt happy if he doesnt get winded properly or cant get to sleep when he wants to (Matthew playing with a coin on the table didnt go down well).  So has been stressful. But I can say that at 9.26pm finally both boys are asleep, along with Steve who had to go to sleep with Matthew to ensure a greater success rate (and he was knackered).

Still no internet access.  There is a room I could go in, but to be honest it really isnt practical with 2 kids on the go, so Im waiting for a wireless connection on a campsite.  I did log in from the side of the road in Franz Josef today for 40 minutes, which cost me 2 quid. Was a frantic 40 minutes replying to emails, checking bank accounts, feeding Lloyd and trying to stop Matthew from eating too many sweets or switching off the laptop (which he has mastered perfectly).  I tried to upload some of the blog but the realtravel website was far too slow, so gave up.

So today we travelled down to Franz Josef which is a town near the Franz Josef Glacier.  It could be on the moon for all we can see, there is a heavy cloud lying over us (aka fog), and the rain is pretty heavy at times.  We were due to go on a steam train today (which I told Matthew about all day yesterday!) and visit a mock 19th century gold mining town, but no point with all the rain.  We are due to pass back this way, so will hopefully visit then.

Franz Josef is a bit like I imagine a ski resort to be - lots of places to hire equipment, guides, helicopters, etc,  and a few cafes, information sites and motels.  It seems commercialised, which surprises me for some unknown reason - I was just expecting the south island to be a little more remote.  In my opinion the south island is very geared towards the foreign tourist, with absolutely no residents (well not many!), whereas the north island has more residents and local tourists and seems less commercialised (if you exclude round by Rotorora.

We are unable to hike the glacier (not sure Matthew would want to do this), so our only real option to see anything is to go up in a helicopter.  Whilst I am a little reticent I think maybe it is a good idea.  But unless the weather clears we wont be doing this.  So tomorrow plan is to look at sky, and if bad then probably move on down towards Queenstown way.  We can return to the glaciers on the way north if we want.  It is disappointing as we could have taken a different route, but what can you do?

I've probably said this before, and will likely say again, but it is hard to bring such young children on holiday.  I feel absolutely shattered every evening, a bit like I have been run over by a bulldozer!  I want to do things but cant, like I would like to go jogging, but when can I leave them?  Even going to the toilets can be hard at times, and usually involves having to drag one of them with me (usually Matthew).  There is no doubt that life at home would be easier as there would be more routine, and the house has more toys and is more child-safe.  When we cooked dinner tonight, for example, Matthew had to be barricaded (literally) down one end as we didnt want him going anywhere near the cooker.  We would have cooked in the campsite kitchens, but the rain was so hard we would have been soaked.

Let me give you an idea of prices.  Diesel is cheap at about 40p per litre - I know makes me sick to think how much we pay in UK!  Food in restaurants varies widely, which is to be expected.  We had a cooked breakfast the other day and was about 6 quid each for not very much really.  As I've said before fruit and veg is cheap, as is meat.  Bread is more expensive than somewhere like Tescos - just over a quid for 6 rolls I paid today, but of top quality like from a bakery, so based on this probably about the same price.  Other food items are the same or slightly more expensive than the UK, e.g. 2 litres of water cost me about 72p from the supermarket.  If you lived in New Zealand it would seem more expensive as wages are much lower than UK.  Toys are about the same price as UK, I cant really say regarding clothes as depends on the shop, but they seem similiarly priced to UK also.  I did manage to get Matthew a pair of shorts for 1 quid in a sale the other day (Caroline and Katye will be proud of me for doing this I know)!  I also bought little Lloyd a UV protecting suit to wear for a couple of quid, not sure if it fits him yet though.

This may be destined to be my longest blog yet.  To be honest it's nice to chill and type this out.  I'm missing the internet now, and missing reading material.  Didnt realise how much I actually read online, or that I need to read to keep sane!  Books here are really expensive btw, was going to buy a novel the other day but was 27 dollars which is about 10 quid, for a book that would cost 4 quid or less in Tescos! I should have bought it really as I've read the 2 NZ guides about 10 times now!  I also miss reading a paper, they sell paper's here, but I dont buy it as I know I wont get a chance to read it, and if I did most of it would be about New Zealand.  It's surprised me that these things bother me, but there you go.

I think when I return home I may appreciate my house a little more. Maybe I will also appreciate Leigh-on-Sea a little more.  I like Leigh a lot already, it has grown on me over the past couple of years, I think it isnt a bad place to live.  There are obviously better places, but is there a perfect place? Im not so sure there is.  It is all about compromise and balance - a little bit of good requires a little bit of bad.

I have found I am less bothered about labels out here.  Because there arent all the labels we have back home (there are quite a few though), then I am trying the cheaper priced items first.  On the whole this is proving okay, I mean  what difference is there between 2 bottles of differently branded water really?!  And I was never a fan of Huggies nappies, and they dont sell pampers, so trying the "local" brands which seem to be okay (if not upto Pampers standards).  God help me if the kids were on re-usable nappies, that would not be fun in a motorhome.

Okay Im off to get some sleep.  Lets pray for sun in the morning, so we can go do our helicopter flight.