CABLE CARS,HOOKING UP WITH FRIENDS AND WATCHING KIWIS KICK EGGS!!

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After a week of shamoning and getting into routine, the first meeting with British counterparts came by Jo Threadgold and her friend Claire, who were travelling and blistzing the southern hemisphere. Having not seen Jo since (as she recalls) my sisters 21st it was pretty much random that we were meeting up in NZ!! We all met Thursday in a huge Sports Bar and got on graet!We and took advantage of the cheap drinks offers with Jo and Claire telling us about the big game on Friday! Yes its Rugby and Jeffo and Stevo will love me for this, the others not so much, but we got tickets to watch the biggest game of the year...Crusaders vs the Chiefs! We hooked up tickets with the promotional girls at the Sports Bar and I blagged a free hat (TUI - its the beer here!). So that was sorted, we arranged to meet Jo and Claire in the stand, took them back to their campsite and huge van and looked back on a real quality night!

On the friday, Gill had the day off so after visiting the best second hand, garage/jumble sale shop in the world (where we unsuccessfully tried to manoverve a sofa bed into the truck with the help of about half of Christchuch laughing our heads off), we headed into the city for the first time together midday. We jumped on the tram tour which was a massive let down and then headed up to the gondolas and cable cars looking over the city! After a more hair raising bus drive from this foreign driver we jumped in a cable car which took us to right to the top of a hill overlooking the city...but the higher we got the more cloud covered us and we couldnt see as much below! We reached the observation and visitor centre and saw as much as we could! It was great there, took the time travel tunnel ride (not as good as you think!) and we grabbed a bit to eat and took in the sites.

GAME NIGHT.....

After a session at the gym Gill and I headed to the JADE stadium, beered up and ready! Ground holds about 30 thou and was awesome. We sat in the TUI stand behind the posts, with beers, ready! Then it all kicked off....horses (crusaders on top) came out running from this castle in the corner, cheerleaders danced and music blarred out, it was awesome. The crusaders belted round about 50 times, whelding their swords as the crowd went mental! Finally it died down a little and after more Tui's and battered sauages the game finished with the Crusaders literally battered by the Chiefs 26-30. Well not battered. Gill was told to check out the fit scrum half by all her girls back home and the vets, but he had a stinker! Gill didnt mind and used half the digital camera on his legs! HAHA. We met Jo and Claire after the game and headed into Christchurch. They were leaving at 11 that night so we headed to the The Grumpy Mole Saloon, which played proper cheese and was literally a saloon. We were all pretty tired and after saying goodbye to the girls who headed for a long night in the airport, Gill and I headed up to Oxford Terrace which we'd seen earlier had alot of real nice bars! The Rugby vibe wasn't really there, which is what we looked for (think we were just in the wrong part of town) and after a few, we jumped in a taxi and headed home, ready for our first travelling weekend in Kiwi land....we decided to head through the mountains right across to the Westcoast of NZ and free style from there.....!!

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