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Published: December 30th 2007
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We left Queenstown on Monday 10 September and caught our 8.30am bus to Christchurch. We made a couple of short stops and a stop for lunch before we arrived in Christchurch at 5.30pm. We checked into the 'Penthouse' at Base Backpackers - the top floor of the building that included a large living space with 2 sofa's, 8 big bean bags, 2 big TV's with loads of channel's, a playstation, a sundeck, a huge kitchen and a bathroom. The Penthouse sleeps 15 but we were the only guests there for our 4 night stay. After settling in, we walked around the town and did some grocery shopping. After dinner at the hostel and watching TV, we went downstairs at 10pm to the hostel bar for a few beers with our mate Kirby. At 1am closing time, the three of us went to Mickey Finn's Irish bar where we played pool and drank for a few more hours. We got to bed at 5am and woke up at 10am to glorious sunshine so we sat out on the sundeck and listened to music while reading magazines. I went for a walk in the afternoon and went to an exhibition on Antarctica. The
rest of the afternoon was spent either out on the sundeck or on the sofa watching TV. That evening, our friends came round and we watched United 93 and then Donnie Brasco. On Wednesday, we walked along the river to the park where we sat on a bench in the sun and read the newspaper. After getting some lunch, we returned to the hostel for the afternoon to watch TV. That night, we spent an hour on the internet before walking to the supermarket to get more groceries. After dinner at the hostel, we watched Predator followed by some 20/20 cricket. On Thursday, we woke up at 6am to watch England Vs Russia and then I took the opportunity to call home. After a breakfast of boiled eggs and soldiers, I spent the afternoon writing my blog, reading and watching TV. Early evening, we went for a walk and went on the internet before returning for dinner. Then some people came into 'our penthouse' to use the playstation so we spent the night chatting with them until they left at midnight. Then we sat up to 3am watching 20/20 cricket. On Friday, we caught our 7.30am bus to Kaikoura and arrived there at 11.30am. We went straight to bed for a long siesta before walking into town for dinner at 6pm. After an hour on the internet, we walked back to our room where we read and listened to music. On Saturday, we caught our 9am bus to Wellington. After stopping briefly at a seal colony, we arrived in Picton at midday for our 1pm sailing to Wellington. We reached our hostel at 5pm and we were drinking in the basement bar by 7pm. After several beers here, we found a bar showing the NZ rugby game on big screen followed by Australia Vs Wales. Several drinks and several bars later, we eventually left the final bar at 7.30am and rushed back to our hostel to catch the 8am bus to Taupo. Obviously we slept for some of the journey but we did stop for lunch in the town of Bulls before arriving in Taupo at 2.30pm. Once again, we slept all afternoon and went out for dinner at 8pm. We stayed up until midnight listening to music and reading in our room. On Monday, our bus to Auckland left at 9am and we stopped at some mud pools and also for lunch before arriving in Auckland at 3pm. After catching up on laundry, we went out for drinks with Nick and Philly and then got a Thai takeaway and took it to their apartment. After dinner, we chatted for a while and played Pictionary before returning to our hostel. On Tuesday morning, we packed all of our stuff in preparation for our flight to Fiji the next day. After a late breakfast, we took a bus to Alexandra Stadium where we watched some harness racing. On returning to the city, I got my haircut and went shopping for swim shorts. At 6pm, we met Nick in our hostel bar and we had a couple of jugs of beer. Then we went to a Japanese cafe for dinner before returning to the hostel bar for a quiz. This kept us in the bar drinking until midnight and then we said our goodbye's to Nick and Philly before Ian and I went to Globe Bar. After a few more drinks here, I eventually got home at 5am. On Wednesday, we woke up at 8.30am to catch the 10am bus to the airport for our 1pm flight to Fiji.
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