Camelot Cathedral Square Christchurch

Erik and I spent Christmas morning tidying up the house and packing our bags for our South Island trip. We ate apple flapps and cheese toasties to use up the last of the fresh food in the fridge - not the most traditional Christmas dinner. Our flight was scheduled to depart around 6pm but check in was delayed. The plane was stuck in Christchurch due to compression problems in the cabin and they almost cancelled the flight.. but we ...

... the global downturn by most airlines. The penalty for each 1kg overweight by Jetstar from Sydney to Phucket was £10. It made sense therefore, to post a 20kg box home by sea at £2.40/kg.
We were quite strict with ourselves and threw out worn items of clothing and any books or other weighty items we could do without.

One night we treated ourselves to a meal out in town and sampled the best ...

... the mirror bit if it's raining. Off we go and we are absolutely astounded at the water launching off the mountains from every angle in a thousand waterfalls. It's a sight I'll remember all my sober days! Due to heavy cloud cover, we gave some of the lookouts a miss, because we know what clouds look like and we wouldn't see anything else. The river beside the road was a arging torrent, leaping high into the air at every boulder it encountered. Spectacular. We turned right onto a gravel ...

... by a larger than life individual ( almost Jesse Ventrua like) on our transfer to the airport.  He explained that he was returning from 6 monhts on "THE ICE". Since it seemed like we were the first people he had talked to in 6 months, he was more than eager to share with us what it is like to live really down under. This is a travel day. We packed up and headed for the big island.  It occurred to us that we were the only people being ...

... which it was moving and it was moving 5 cm per day). As we got closer it became colder and colder because the wind coming off the ice shelf was constant and pretty damn cold. But it warmed up as we hiked around through the rain forest. When we finally got to the trail head of the glacier we strapped on "cramp-ons" so we wouldn't slip when we were on the ice. By the time we got to the ...

... my chest, for the next minute or so. That was far too close. The stye was easier to navigate without shouldering a bike, so when I'd collected myself I climbed over and picked up the bike. The wind was insane. I could see the trail running along the cliff ahead and after a brief hesitation, I jumped on the bike and pressed on. I'd barely got to the first corner when the wind blasted from behind and threw my weight, and consequently the front wheel, towards the cliff. Enough was enough ...