Day 50 NZ to OZ

---

Christchurch is located on the north east coast and has a population of over 300,000 and is the biggest city in the South Island. It is a modern city but with gothic architecture.

Our first trip this morning was on a tram ride of the city. This 25 minute ride took us around the city centre showing us the sights and informing us of interesting facts about the city and its buildings etc. The main square is home to the cathedral and is the heart of the city.

We do a bit of shopping while waiting for the kiwis to wake up! Yes we found somewhere to view kiwis before we leave New Zealand. The Southern Encounter Aquatic and Kiwi Centre located in the main square is home to some kiwis and underwater exhibitions. Apparently the kiwis do not get up until about 11am each day despite being nocturnal in the wild. While waiting we wander round the exhibitions of fish and underwater creatures including, sharks, stingrays, seahorses, eels, turtles and octopus.

After about 15 minutes a kiwi is found awake so we venture into the dark quiet room which is home to a couple of these flightless birds. It was a North Island brown kiwi that was awake and rummaging around with his beak. It was a lot bigger than we expected and had a very long beak for searching in the undergrowth.

Unfortunately we are leaving New Zealand today and had to head to the airport at lunchtime for our 3.25pm flight to Sydney. Before leaving the city we just had time to have a quick look at the Christchurch museum before getting the bus to the airport.

Our first flight is 3 hours and to Sydney with Quantas airlines. It was a comfortable and quick flight and we were to then transfer to the domestic terminal to get our connecting 5 hour flight to Perth. During landing we had a fantastic view of the city and managed to see the harbour bridge and opera house, hopefully we will see them close up in about 6 weeks time. While waiting to get off the plane we spot a Singapore Airlines A380 (the newest and largest passenger plane in the world) take off and we then see the Quantas A380 parked up in the maintenance hanger.

Our flight departed at 7.20pm and landed in Perth at 10.15pm, the time difference has changed again by 4 hours so we are now 9 hours greater than GMT. We were collected from the airport by Laura's relatives whom we are staying with for the next 2 weeks. It was great to see some familiar faces and have the luxury of staying in a house for a while.

---

Comments

[Maggie]

Gold
Panning for gold hey Oli???? Hope you found enough and it was 18ct white or even platinum!!! xx

[Linda Brook]

Oli - if you have gold then you need large diamonds too! xx