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Published: February 25th 2008
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Day 152 - Tuesday 19 February
After getting up and checking out we picked up our cricket tickets before taking the 2 1/2 hour drive up to Kaikoura. The road was deserted and although the scenary on the drive was good its only similar to driving across the pennines or the lake district.
Arriving early afternoon we checked into our hostel. Again its really nice and clean even though its the cheapest I could find. We then went to explore the town.
With a population of just 4000 its not the biggest of places and the town centre is just a strip about 100m long. Its supposed to be the best place in New Zealand to go whale watching so as you imagine its a tourist town. With its torquoise blue sea water and the mountains rising up behind the town its also probably the best scenery I've seen so far although Laos comes close.
Early evening we headed to the only internet cafe in town to get up to date with all the latest news (I can't believe Preston came so close to winning against Portsmouth), before we had dinner and then a quick pint in
one of the pubs in town. We'd joked on the drive up that given the size of the place there probably wont be many women there and we weren't wrong. The whole pub was packed full of men except for one couple in their 50's. So after our pint we headed back to the hostel and watched a dvd instead.
Day 153 - Wednesday 20 February
I got up at half eight today and was just in time to watch the Liverpool v Inter Milan Champions league game. Its been ages since I've watched a full football game but why does Gerard never score them goals for England?
When the football finished we then started to watch the England v New Zealand one day cricket match. With England 2-1 down in the series and as we've got tickets for the last one day game in Christchurch on Saturday were hoping for an England win.
With England scoring 340 runs we left the hostel to watch the Kiwis bat in the pub. Its half 2 and as i've not had a proper english style piss up in ages so were going to do an all dayer and
attempt a pint in every pub in town (theres only three). I cant believe the Kiwis chased it down but at one point I thought they'd easily win so was happy to settle for a draw. At least theres something to play for on saturday.
Between 6 and 7 one of the pubs has an offer on called 'Toss the Boss'. Whatever you order, the barmaid tosses a coin. If you win you get it for free if you lose you pay. I did rather well out of it and got 3 out of 4 beer jugs for free.
There had been a few english people in the pub and we'd got chatting to a young english couple and a bloke from Essex. As the pub quiz was starting in the boozer across the road we went over. We didnt win but I couldn't believe the couple had never heard of the tv series 'Birds of a feather', or knew that Robbie Williams used to be in Take That. When I asked them how old they were they replied 18. Blimey!
Again with the pub mostly full of men we called it a night at 11. Theres
no point waking up with a hangover tomorrow and it isn't going to get any better tonight.
Day 154 - Thursday 21 Februry
Woke up in time to watch the Arsenal v AC Mialn football game, before Russ headed off to do his Whale Watching. As its $130 (50 quid) and I went dolphin watching only a week ago I decided to give it a miss. Instead I spent the day on the beach. Although it had been very sunny yesterday the sea breeze had put a chill in the air yesterday, however with no breeze today its going to be a scorcher. The beach is nice with great views of the mountains but unfortunately its a stone one and there's no sand to lie on.
After getting cooked by the sun, I went for dinner with Russ and some Swedish bloke that Russ has picked up, before settling down to watch a dvd.
Day 155 - Friday 22 February
Once again I was up before nine a far cry from my days in Sydney where I struggled to be up before 11 am. With another football game on the tv (Tottenham v Slavia Prague),
I watched that before we checked out.
As well as the whales theres a seal colony in Kaikoura so we took a walk around the cliffs and down the shore and ran into a few. There bigger than I expected.
After lunch along with the Swedish guy Russ met yesterday who were giving a lift too we drove back to Christchurch. After getting supplies from the supermarket I picked up a New Zealand sim card as I've worked out it will be cheaper for me to use calling Ji-Won than my UK one.
Following dinner Russ and the Swedish bloke who's name is called Robert went back to the casino so Russ could try and win his money back. As I didn't feel like betting and would only get bored I stayed behind in the hostel and watched a dvd instead.
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