Hello sherbert

Got up and left our nice cabin in Kaikoura and headed off to Christchurch in search of new car (well replacement car - it's definitely not new!). Managed to fill up with petrol before we left as the petrol station up the road had a delivery over night and we got there before people had realised! Filled every container we had with water and packed the three days worth of shopping we did last night into carrier bags and set off.

Car swap fine in car hire places that were out near airport and had text from Martyns parents saying they were having breakfast in Brisbane so their plane must have left alright!

Got into replacement vehicle - the 4WD we had booked and planned to call Lucy (not very inspired as we hired it from Jucy) Immediately had to rename him (definitely a he so Lucy just wouldn't work) he smelt of those Refresher sweets / sherbet . Hence the name.

Officially he is called Sherbert. This is shortened affectionately to Sherby or, when struggling to get up the odd hill he is known as Herbert the sherbert! He must be a good little truck as we've only had him a day and I'm very attached to him! We hope Jalopy is okay and today we also wondered what Vinny is up to now as we saw one of his younger brothers yesterday.

Anyway, due to the situation in Christchurch Sherbert was given to us with just over half a tank of fuel and a very muddy bum (boot) but we loved him anyway and filled him up at the first station without a 15 min queue for fuel! We've left his muddy bum as it makes us look like really well travelled 4WDrivers!

Made it as far as Fairlie where we found a campsite that wanted a ridiculous amount of money for their last available cabin (oh, sorry - apartment as the receptionist was determined to tell us-like that made any difference) so decided to break out tent again - we must be missing home or something as it's less than ten degrees here!

We've decided to use the days we should have been in Christchurch to head up to the Mt Cook region which we were going to have to miss out and not surprisingly as we went up to the mountains and read about the stunning views the cloud came down and the rain started - typical.

Still, tent pitched in the dry and it's not raining yet, keep it to yourselves but it might actually be brightening up which would be great for all the cool things we've planned for the next few days!

Oh and touch wood - we are officially declaring the rash gone (fingers crossed it stays that way!)