Turret House Christchurch

... us leave for home, and others continue on to tour the North island.

What a night! Few drinks in hotel bar, then we headed out to an italian restaurant which was very nice indeed. Onto a pub next, whereby they were doing a quiz.. we helped out a little :) Gosh I was tipsy when I got back.. so much so I overslept the following morning & missed seeing the coach leave.. my sleep is far more important!!

... Starbucks and felt a massive surge of excitement: 6 weeks of developing my world-weary globetrotter look evaporated as I bought my overpriced coffee and muffin combo. I managed to catchup with an old friend in Auckland (Hello BigFresh) who showed me the "real" city, away from the tourist strip: a beautiful place, with suburbs full of beaches and coves. So I definitely disagree with all of the Auckland-bashers out there!

There are quite a few advantages to ...

... rain. This country is incredibly beautiful. We wandered around a little and had fantastic shwarmas for lunch at a cafe called Souvlaki. Came back, took a nap and out to explore. Off to dinner (Bicycle Theif - great pizza!), drinks and even heared some music. The band closed with an Old Crow Medicine Show song.

... Francisco to meet Lea. I have not seen her since I left in January and i was so looking forward to catching up with her and seeing how married life was in California. We spent hte whole 3 days chatting. We were staying at the gorgeous Westin St Francis on Union Sq. God i had missed nice hotels. We took a wander round San Fran, did a spot of shopping, went to pier 39, saw the sealions chilling on the pontoons. We didn't make it over to Alcatraz ...

This week was "angels and mortals week," so on Sunday, we all drew names including the rest of the base staff, BCC, missions builders, and cooks. And we had to do something anonymously to encourage and bless the other person every day during the week spending less than NZ $10. A lot of people, if they didn't know the person well, talked to their friends to see what that person liked. So many people went all out. There were songs ...

Hello, Sorry it has been so long since our last entry - we had a bit of a shock actually having to pay for the internet in NZ rather than get it free in the hostels in S.America. We have been in NZ for 6 weeks now and are leaving on Saturday morning for Aussie. We first arrived at the beginning of March and were immediately spoilt rotten by my Mum's friend Jan - who let us into the luxury of her home and feed us up fantastically, and if that wasn't enough arranged for a car we bought to ...

... each other so its not the end of the world, and on the rare occasion I have not had a ride to the city I have hitchhiked (sorry Mum!), it’s really easy here, everyone stops, and the 2times I have done it my longest wait stands at 3minutes!

As for New Zealand, we are getting towards the back end of winter now, officially spring starts in September, but there are baby lambs, sunny days, and a few flowers in the orchard. Lots of piccies to arrive when the blossom ...

... rim influence in the food. We ate Japanese and Korean last night - yes even Tim. Today we went shopping and to the Antarctic centre which is fascinating and we could have stayed longer. Did not get to Akaroa - next time. Now its quiet and very sunny as we ponder a night flight to Hong Kong.

... so it was glorious, the pools ranged from 35 to 41degrees.....thats HOT, only the hottest were Sulphurus, so the smell was only round those. We then drove over to Akaroa and stayed the night, very pretty 'Frenchy' influenced sea side resort. Guess what, Rain. so we did'nt hang around Akaroa, not that much to do in the rain, so we drove back to Christchurch and visited the Museum and Art Galleries( Of course we would ...

... makes it to you before you land; otherwise no caffeine for those who really need it at 5 AM. Luckily for G, he couldn't care less about getting that coffee. Since coffee seemed to be so hard to come by in this country, we've decided to try our luck with some wines as our first stop in the South Island was the famous Marlborough County, home of some of the best Sauvignon Blancs in the world. We know, we know, it was only 11 AM by the time we've started the wine ...