I tried not to think about the wonderful shoes and handbags I could buy with three thousand dollars. That was the amount we had just handed over for two weeks in a rented Chevrolet car.

Trust us to land in Miami just at the peak of Spring Break when every man and his clothed chihuahua are trying to rent a car.

Tim and I were horrified to think we could buy an okay car for that amount in our home country (in fact we gave away both our cars when we left NZ, that's how far gone they were), but the feeling faded pretty quickly when we threw our mountain of gear into the roomy 'trunk' and drove towards a monstrous Miami mall to buy more stuff we 'needed' for the trip.

And we were very grateful to have a new companion in the car with us.

Nelly the Navigator (the Hertz Never Lost GPS system) was a little on the bossy side but she knew how to get us everywhere.

When we were hungry, we just asked Nelly to direct us to the nearest Quiznos Subs (which quickly became our favourite eatery) or the closest WalMart Superstore.

Nelly could tell us how far we had to go, how long it would take us and when to exit the freeway. We were pretty much in love with her.

Check out more photos from my trip in my Flickr album.

Find out about Miami.

Read more of Kelly's blogs.