RAIN

Helen: Well, I'm glad we didn't come here from NZ for some winter sun, like some poor people we met yesterday. Cos it's RAINING. Proper tropical doesn't stop raining for hours and you get soaked to the skin if you so much as stick a toe outside rain. So we're hiding out in an internet cafe writing to you lot, drinking espresso (so good they apparently export it to Italy) and eating banana muffins. Certainly not going for a scooter trip around the island today.

Forgot to tell you that on our way to Tonga, even though we're not yet at 180 degrees, we did in fact, pass over the international date line. Little bump, and there we were, smack bang in the middle of Sunday when minutes before we'd been enjoying Saturday. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun! Well, we've spent the last 5 months or so gaining an extra day hour by hour, so it was going to have to disappear at some point. We're now 13 hours ahead of GMT rather than 11 hours behind - which means we're actually quite contactable for a change - and we have a local sim card as we'll be in Tonga for a while. So, if you want to talk to us, email us for the number and get dialing :)

Right, C needs the computer now - round 3 in the saga of Charlie vs First Direct. Honestly - no matter how many times we tell them that we're travelling round the world and to expect transactions in far flung corners of the globe, they are always blocking our cards and asking us to phone them. PHONE them. As if that was a reasonable thing to ask someone to do. Hmmmm.

Hope all is well at home in Blighty - from messages we've been getting though it's as wet with you as it is here :(

H&Cxxxxxxxxxxxxx