New Zealand adventures begin!!

---

At last the waiting is over! We are finally here in New Zealand. But we have to ask ourselves what we are actually doing when we get off the plane at midnight in a freezing cold Christchurch!! Goodbye to the boiling hot tropics. Emily hasnt felt the cold since April 2005 in Scotland (apart from 2 weeks in Tasmania in April) and Emma hasnt since she waved goodbye to Ireland in January.

We meet an English guy outside the airport. He has had a rough time with immigration and is only granted a months visa. I don't know how we were granted 6 month visas when we dont have a return ticket either. We take Chris with us to our hostel, Charlie B's. It's warm and cosy and we have hot chocolate before bed.

Waking up in the morning it is grey and rainy outside. Great! The cleaners say the weather in the past few weeks has been like something out of 'The Day After Tomorrow'. Double great! Still, we manage to drag ourselves out of bed in order to hit the shops in search of warm winter clothes!!

At Cathedral Square the NZ army band is playing Ye Banks and Braes of Bonny Doon. How bizarre for Emily! They are flying over to Edinburgh to play in the fringe in a weeks time. Say hi to Scotland for me!

After we have exhausted our credit cards, we hit the pub with the intention of planning our trip. Chris comes with us and we ask him to join us on our travels. Perfect. A few drinks later and we find ourselves in an Irish bar (!) playing pool with a bunch of young guys. A couple of them take us under their wing and take us to a strip of pubs and bars. A jagerbomb (jagermeister and red bull) or two later we are all in suitably high spirits and looking forward to getting on the road. Kiwis are so friendly and welcoming. Did you know there are only 4 million people in this country but 40 million sheep!!! 40 million!!!

On Saturday we buy a 9 seater Ford Spectron car. It's carpeted and all the seats fold down to create a massive bed. Chris has a good look at it (cos let's face it, me and Emma ain't got a clue!) and tells us it's in pretty good condition. Manage to get the girls selling it to drop their price and we part with a mere $2150. Bargain if i do say so myself!

Sunday is spent shopping again (it's a hard life) and by Monday we are more than ready to get going. We are about to have another Chris join us (who describes himself as a 'sexy irish manbeast'...) but he doesn't have as much time as we do. We would have had Chris, Chris Em and Em in the car. P'raps better he didn't come!

---