Arrived (for Caroline's contacts just added)

---

We finally arrived on Friday after a nightmare journey! We arrived at Heathrow only to discover that our flight to New Zealand via LA was cancelled. At first, we thought we would spending the night in London but New Zealand Airlines did a fantastic job in getting us re-routed via Seoul. We finally arrived in Wellington only a few hours late!

We spent the weekend in the Holiday Inn in Wellington - very luxurious! We found a supermarket and bought a couple of bottles of Sauvignon Blanc and enjoyed it looking over the view of the harbour from our room. After a quick power nap, we met up with Ruth and went for dinner and a cocktail. Very civilised!

On Saturday we did the sights - we climbed Mount Victoria, took the cable car to the Botanical Gardens and then had a couple of glasses of wine (you'll see there is a theme running here!) at the Waterfront.

At night, we met up with Ruth again and enjoyed a few drinks in the local haunts! It was a late one or should I say early considering some bars stay open until 8am! But you'll be glad to know that we were both in bed before then!

Sunday was a slow start! Enjoyed brunch and then had a lazy afternoon (well .... I did, Caroline) but Elaine was proud of her 9 mile walk in preparation for the Caledonian Challenge (be warned Rosie, Pierre and Andreas!).

On Monday we caught the ferry to the South Island and then hopped on a bus to Christchurch - scenery was amazing! Glad we only had one night there as it was a typical city...could be anywhere.

This morning we covered quite a few miles on the train between Christchurch and Greymouth on the west coast. We picked up our hire car which we think is the best way to go as we spent the afternoon at a beach just south of Greymouth as the weather was glorious and we wouldn't have had that freedom had we taken the bus. Bought a picnic and sat on the beach for the whole afternoon. Elaine found a supermarket, bought herself a towel and had a dip in the ocean.

We're now in Franz Josef and are booked for our glazier walk tomorrow - not sure what to expect!

---