I'm sitting at a computer in Hervey Bay in Australia and the thing is slower than the ones in Laos, great...

First of all I want to thank our Italian friends Stefano and Elisa (whom, after careful planning, we met by chance and at the wrong place. The phone calls to organise this have cost us more than the entire trip) for introducing us to the joys of the free camping and smelly life. But that was OK, we saw some great places while looking for a place to camp. And some great public toilets too. I particularly liked the ExeLoo. Everything is automatic there, from the doors to the soap dispenser and it also self-cleans. The only minor anno yance is that it runs on a timer and after ten minutes an alarm sounds and the door swings open much to the delight of the next user. Believe me, I had nightmares about this.

Other than that, I think I liked the North island in N. Zealand better and not just to disagree with every other person on the planet. It's just that apart from the wild west coast, the rest in the south is a lot like Ireland, which although pretty wasn't a novelty for me. Plus it's full of little towns where the main entertainment options include sheep shearing and grass carting.

The sheep though in N.Z. are picture perfect. They are unebelievably cute and wooly. And some of them have wool that runs down their forehead and they look a bit like Elvis. You sort of understand how Gene Wilder and the Greek guy, Titos Vandis fell in love with that sheep in "Everything you wanted to know about sex". (I know, I'm a very sick and twisted person).  

The best thing with the N. Zealanders is the pronunciation of vowels. They say "i" for "e" and v.v., e.g. yis=yes, sex=six.
At a zoo, the guide was telling us how the eels feed on "did (=dead) animals". There was an English woman there who had to ask 3-4 times "They feed on what?" And the answer every time was "did animals". Hilatious how the native speakers couldn't communicate. BTW, we didn't see the Seven-Eleven store chain in N. Zealand. Small wonder, try it in N.Z. accent.

As mentioned we're in Oz, somewhere on the east coast, just came back from a 3 day safari on the world's biggest sand island. You could pick your way to die there, from the dingos that mauled a boy to death in 2001, to the sharks and the undertow in the sea. To that I would like to add the python that had made his home just behind our tent (kills the mice they said, yeah right) and the venomous spiders that were in abundance where we stayed. No matter what Penelope writes in future blogs, keep in mind that I had to bring her to the toilet cause she was afraid of the dingos (if she writes anything about a leech and me screaming like a little girl, don't believe her either).
Plus, I think she's gone completely mad. She was crossing the chaotic streets in SE Asia like nothing and she won't cross the road until it's green in N.Z. and Oz. Plus, whenever I was driving our car she was always jumpy and afraid that I'd kill us both and now that I was driving a van with the wheel on the wrong side and on the wrong side of the road, she was sleeping. Psycho I tell you, I have to get rid of her before she kills me in my sleep.

Vassilis

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