You can take the girl out of Britain........

But unfortunately the black dog came too. Which is a b*gger. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect to land here and everything be magically fixed, but every logical thought says - you're in a beautiful country - what have you got to be sad about? But unfortunately, as we know, that's not the way it works. I'm hoping that surfing will help me lose some of the weight I put on with my tablets, and that might help how I feel, but sometimes it just seems like an uphill struggle.

Anyway, you're all sat there saying "shut up whinging you silly cow, we're in the UK & it's raining", so I shall keep that side of things to myself.

Things I don't get about NZ:

• Biscuits - I have yet to see any that look/taste worth eating;
• Lack of central heating & insulation - on the news this morning was an item about insulation becoming mandatory in new houses - in 2007! - Yet they had broadband, credit/debit card systems and various other technological advances waaaaaay before we did. Bizzare.
• Beautiful beaches, sunny days - no people! Have seen about 10 people max each day on the beach since last weds - weird. I suppose that living here, it's not a novelty having nice whether, so they don't have to make the most of every ray of sunshine.
• Brand name stuff i.e heinz, but they also have stuff like Watties - which has all the same layout, log, colours etc, just the name is different.
• Confusing array of things British - but some essential things missing. British & American(current) music & tv progs are up to date, and there are English magazines/papers such as Womens weekly (!!!!), Now, The daily express etc - but no Heat magazine. That's just rude. If they're going to stock some British stuff the least they could do is stock my one allowance of trash reading. But apparently you can get it over here. They just don't stock in Gisborne. But I can order it in. which is sad, but I might just have to do it!
• Bed linen is ridiculously expensive. Everywhere. V strange.
• The lack of an argos-type store. Means having to go to about a gazillion different shops to compare prices.

I went in the sea today - unpacked my wetsuit, and went and bought a boogie board and had an hour or so of arsing around in the sea which was jolly good fun. I think if I'd been really brave I could have managed without my wetsuit. But I'm not, so I didn't.

Got to go to the other house (the one we were going to rent) to check if there's any mail - hoping that some of my CD's have arrived, and not got nicked by the owner! NZ post re-direction should have kicked in by now but you never know.

Oh, and if you come out here, you need some serious sun screen. And hats. Which is a bummer cause I hate hats - but they're a necessary evil.

Anyway, time's up, so I'll catch u later.

Zoe