New Zealand, The World Cup and crap rugby!!

---

We left Bangkok late after a massive thunder and lightening storm grounded the plane for over an hour. A 9.5 hour flight on Quantas (the most uncomfortable airline EVER!) and a very whistle stop tour of the airport at Sydney Australia and finally arrived in Christchurch. I would love to say how beautiful the city is, but the devastation of the centre of the city from the recent earthquakes has taken the heart out of the place. It's like being in a war zone or after a nuclear bomb! Buildings are still standing exactly as they were left with umbrellas still up outside cafes!! Buildings that they were hoping to save from the quake in February were ruined in another quake in June. We had a few moments of contemplation hoping that the people of Christchurch recover from this.

On the plus side the people are so very friendly here and they would do anything for us. The motor home is lovely and we've spent the last couple of days getting used to it.

We watched the opening ceremony in the Fanzone in Christchurch which was fantastic with big screens televising everything, then motored over 300k to get to Dunedin for last nights game which we really weren't sure was actually worth it.......!! Problems with the wrong tickets caused a brief hiccup, but they soon sorted it for us. A win is still a win though, so bring on Romania!

Tomorrow we head off to the Catlins, which is an area of natural beauty were we should be able to see seals, yellow eyed penguins and other sea mammals. Can't WAIT for that :D

Catch up with you all again soon with pictures, hopefully!!! xxxxxxxx

---