A week down the west coast, three days up the east...

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Back in Q'Town we hit the bars, lightl, for Claires 25th birthday. Happy Birthday Claire. We tried to go to be at 11 but i still found myself out partying until 3am having to be up at 7. We called it a night there and after a short stint in the play park we were in bed.

The next morning I rose and showered and breakfasted before waking Rob up. One of our room mates hadn't returned yet, so must have got lucky, and the other one, a female, was sleeping naked. It disturbed me slightly...! We were outside and waiting for the bus at 8 and it rolled round the corner and our driver Pippa jumped out. Checking her list she informed us that we weren't on the bus, i showed her the printout that begged to differ, so she called the office and kicked some arse.

She explained she had a full bus and couldn;t really do anything about it until we had finished all the pick ups to see if there were any no-shows. Luckilt for us, there were enough for us to get a seat.

We cruised on up to Christchurch stopping first at Cromwell for morning tea, at the side of a beautiful lake with Mts Cook and Tekapo on the horizon and then Geraldine for afternoon tea. Our driver played to rather weird and random kiwi films.

The landscape contasted drastically to the West coast. It was equally as mountainoues but the colour was beige and yellow rather than lush green.

Arriving in Christchurch we really did struggle to see any comparisons with Britain except for the occasional stone building that looked rather like an Oxbridge uni add-on. We checked into our hostel rather wearied after an eight hour cruise. We noticed that a near by fish and chip shop served up the greasy dish for just 4 bucks so were keen to get in on this deal, however, being a saturday it was shut. We trekked around, now wishing to have fish and chips, for about hlaf an hour before bumping into Rosie and the three of us found a chinese place that did fish and chips. Don;t even askk.

We watched a busker for a short time, being in Christchurch while the Buskers festival was on it seemed natural, before having tea back at our hostel. We had a tip about a really cool bar so after Rosie had cleaned up we headed to this bar. Dux Lux, brew and serve up beer on site. And they had a ginger beer with actual alcohol! It was amazing. After a drink here, a little expensive, we headed to the base bar to be sociable with a few of the people that were leaving. We hit bed at a reasonable 11, but i was a human alarm clock for some people so woke up at 7. No complaints really, i wouldn;t have slept much longer!

I got up, showered, breakfasted and waited for Rob. When he surfaced we headed to the Botanic Gardens and had a wander, watched some more buskers and generally chilled out. It was good to have a day off. But felt boring and unnatural, like the dynamic had disappeared.

The next bus turned up and brought Ryan!!! and Claire and Cheryl and Andreas. Andreas and I were going to have a game of tennis so we went in search of somewhere to rent tennis rackets having found free tennis courts, but gave up. So him, Ryan, Rob and I got a ten buck curry takeaway and munched that at the YHA! We then headed back to Dux Lux to watch the tennis final with a few pints of nice beer. I was the only one in the bar supporting Nadal...how good it feels to always be right!

Another early start this morning, and after saying goodbye to Ryan for the last time we caught our bus with Murray to Kaikoura, just a short drive today. We stopped for morning tea and breakfast in a little township, and it was pissing it down. It was a miserable and cold day.

Kaikoura is a small place, ideal for those wanting to do the whale watch or dolphin watch, but we weren't and we arrived at midday. It was wet and cold and windy. So we watched Snatch in our hostel before braving it to go to a bar and watch the end of the superbowl.

After dinner we grabbed Rosia and Cheryl and had a beer on the beach, in the dark and just chatted about Asia, us having beent ehre, and them both going there. Before heading back to our respective hostels to sleep.

Peace out!

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