Seascape Escape Christchurch

... to Neil and then to our good friends we have made there. It was a sad day.

And now, here we are in Blenheim. Right on the north of the South Island. We managed to work 4 days of a vineyard job before quitting. It was horrible and our boss was a completely unorganised plonker, who has swindled so many people that we are left wondering if we’ll get paid… but that’s another story!

Soon, we are off to the North Island and then to Melbourne for Christmas ...

... eyes. In a way it was quite moving to see them in the sombre light, going about their business completely unaware how precarious things are for kiwis in the wild these days.

After the kiwis there was a bit of a whistlestop tour of the centre. Down to the banks of the River Avon to see the punts (Wendy; no thanks. Me: done that in Cambridge). Along to the Botanic Gardens and the museum, just for a look from the outside really. Then back to the hotel via ...

... and blue sky overlooked the mountains. Our tour guide Lauren made a phone call to a helicopter flight school she heard offered scenic flights and within 30 mins we were climbing into a helicopter to fly over the mountains.

Our pilot took us up over 1500m into what seemed like a completely different world. We did a snow landing on top of one of the mountains where the snow was untouched a knee deep! We dont really need to explain but check out the ...

... NZ$50 to spend, expecting to lose it, and so it wasn't so bad when I did, in fact, lose it all. I played $5 Blackjack with $40 of it. That meant I could only play eight hands if I lost every time, which I didn't, but I still didn't last terribly long. I got down to around $20 or $25 fairly quickly and hovered there for a while before losing. I took the last $10 and played two cent slots for a while; 500 credits lasted me a good bit, but it was eventually all gone ...

... seals.
Happy with my insight into the animal world I drove back to Dunedin, where I stayed for the night.

Day 28
Another driving day. Along the east coast I was making my way to Christchurch. It took around 7 hours with a few stops including two major ones. First one was by these enormous boulders on the shore. The second one was in town of Oamaru, lovely unhurried place with a historic precinct, very rare in this part of the ...

... did make an interesting stop at a hydroelectric plant(aka Dam) where because of the rain of the previous couple of days they had to open the flood gates. We got to watch up close as thousands of cubic litres of water went flying down a release ramp into an anti-erosion barrier, cool! When we arrived in Lake Tekapo we had only one thing to say, "Were cold!". Possibly the coldest place we've been since we left home last ...

... first thing she said is "What church are you from?" I think part of the problem is that we had so many people go tonight, and even though our team only had 3 people (including 1 guy), I think it was pretty overwhelming for the women especially because there were probably close to 20 of us walking up and down the street. Next week, one of our leaders has a meeting with Salvation Army about how we can partner ...

... of Christchurch as well as the nations. Then, we drove to the city center and did a scavenger hunt that the staff planned for us. The goal of the scavenger hunt was to learn the city so that we would be familiar with it when we come back for outreach next week. Our group wasn't too enthused about the scavenger hunt and had a few members go their own way for a while, but we still did part of it. Other than ...

... actually not jokes after all.... We drove about 5 hours north to Christchurch on the last sunny day that we have had. Most of the drive is along the cliff edge of the coast line and was stunning. As usual, stopped a million times to take pictures. We arrived in Christchurch with no where to stay. Called around to all the hostels in the Lonely Planet, but everyone was full except for one place 20 mins from town. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise ...

... last minute nerves are starting to kick in and despite having been thinking, planning and looking forward to this trip for an entire year I'm just starting to think of all the things that could go wrong, and all the different ways I could get lost knowing my hopeless sense of direction...but at the same time I am also incredibly excited and I can't wait for the adventure to begin! See you in South America...