Monday. After an unanticipated 6am wake up call (ordered by the tour company without our knowledge) we started our 7 day tour of the South Island. Our tour is a large (44 people) and varied group - with people from Australia, England, Germany and Ireland (just to name a few). We left Christchurch during peak hour... well, I would call 8am peak hour, but you wouldn't know it with the lack of heavy traffic. We did a brief tour of the city before heading south towards the Canterbury Plains. This is a lush, fertile part of the country that has many farms and rivers. There was a quick stop in a little town that is famous for its salmon... so much so, that there is a giant salmon on the main highway. Further into the Canterbury
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