We live in a van down by the river!

That's right. Just like Matt Foley from the Saturday night live skit with Chris Farley. Every night when we drive 'home' I have to think about that skit. And for those of you who don't know it, you must check it out here.

The river that we live by is called the Clutha. It is a very pretty river and reasonably sized, but it unfortunately is infected with Didymosphenia geminata, more commonly known as Didymo or Rock Snot. In that wikipedia article it even mentions that the Clutha is contaminated. It is really nasty stuff and they have just recently discovered it on the South Island in the last few years. It hasn't made it to the North Island yet.

Anyway, the place down by the river that we are living at is called Albert Town Campground. We only have to pay $100 NZD for 2 people for 30 days! Rent couldn't be any cheaper. The only downside is that there aren't any showers at the campground. We have to go to another campground or backpacker in town and pay $5 for a shower every time we want to take one. Which still isn't too bad. We will only be living there until around the beginning of April and then we are done working and we can get back on the road again.

Oh, and it's official, we are going to Australia!! We found a really good price on airfares, so we will go on May 14 until May 25. Only 12 days, but I don't think we could afford much more and we really mainly want to spend most of our time in NZ. We will fly into Sydney and possibly drive down to Melbourne. It should be really cool! Since we are on this side of the world, not taking the quick trip across the ditch (that is what both New Zealanders and Australians call it) would be crazy!