Classic Villa Christchurch

... drivers seat - I was a bit nervous at first but it was grand and I drove us to Kaikoura. It's a lovely seaside town - we stayed in a hostel in the village and I really liked it - it reminded me of an old hotel with patterned carpet and a lovely flowery border in our room and an ancient tv but it was so quaint! We went to a pub quiz one night and they were making the last teams do forfeits like downing shots and pints - thankfully we were ...

... our photo, we were the best Pirate and Panda in the Southern Hemisphere! After a really fun night, we did spend a few hours in the shower trying to rub off the 'washable' (yeah right!) face paints! Beckie still has black eyebrows now. <br><br>Franz Josef <br><br>After a long day on the Kiwi Experience bus we arrived at the hostel/hotel/motel to be greeted by a typical Kiwi bloke........ or not. Turns out this very plush hostel was being run by a Brummie!! A ...

... bus stop. Once back in town I was researching the cost of internal flights in Australia and was quite shocked by how expensive they are, although I will still be doing it (hopefully flying up to Cairns), but I will have to be careful with the rest of my budget. In the evening Kareen, me and a couple of other people watched 'My, Myself and Irene" in the tv room. Oz tommorow baby!!!!!!!!

... unsecured network that I could latch onto. Starbucks wanted me to sign my life away. It was a hassle. Hence when I got a reasonable system I tended to upload two or even three prepared blogs. You don't actually just miss the blog stuff. There's email and using the web for research that you just normally now take for granted. An example would be after we got back from Gibraltar and some of us were wondering why the Germans early in ...

... each country we were visiting, had to pay for the accommodation on our behalf, as per usual. Next day, we spent the morning and a great deal of the afternoon, eating, washing our smelly clothes, and booking transport for New Zealand. Options are as follows: 1. Bus tour 2. Car 3. Campervan I was originally very opposed to the driving idea, as i´m not much of a driver anyway, and i has visions of some sort of bump, resulting in spending all the money for S ...

... get to see a very friendly bird called a "Weka" who was pretty cute. On the way back to Greymouth we stopped to walk along a deserted beach which had lots of rock-pools to investigate. Day 43 Today we got the Trans-Scenic train across the Southern Alps from Greymouth to Christchurch via Arthur's Pass. This is supposedly one of the most scenic train journeys in the world, and although it was pretty nice, it would definitely be better in the winter when the mountains have snow on them.

... world below so she was pretty chuffed. The ascent was magnificent - 12000ft. We got to see the glaciers, Mt. Cook, Tasman Sea and several lakes. I was at the back of the plane but still had a great view. As we got close to the drop zone our nerves had settled and we felt surprisingly calm. The door was flipped open and Lois was suspended outside the plane while they did final checks ... and after a few snapshots ... they disappeared (on the ground I found out that CJ ...

And so ends the sisters' road trip. Just as we left Kaikoura the dolphins put on a show for us as a final farewell. It was a great trip around the South Island. I know that there is still so much more to see and do in New Zealand so I guess I'll just have to come back some day!!!

15 December Back on the road for the drive north in the rain. Stopped in Timaru for fish and chips, and the rain finally cleared about Ashburton. Found our friends' place in Cass Bay, around from Lyttelton. Beautiful big place overlooking the end of Lyttleton harbour. They have a small herd of highland cattle right next door, with very cute hairy calves. Enjoyed a lovely dinner, and caught up over lots of bottles ...

... an "8-minute walk" (according to the hostel write up) from the hostel center. We headed out on foot. Our backpacks loaded - and 5 pounds heavier from all the brochures! Gee, the blocks looked a lot shorter on the map that they were on foot. Luckily we had our handy-dandy BBH guidebook and a city map in our collection of things, so we used them to navigate to the hostel. We finally arrived on the street thinking we had only steps to go to get to the ...