Copthorne Hotel Commodore Christchurch

... you still noticed the cold! We then had another long drive to get the our next stop; Flock Hill Sheep Station. Again, the snow held us up a little, but we watched Remember The Titans on the journey, such a good film!

Last night we played a few games and tried a few 'Flock Hill Challenges' such as climbing over a table without touching the ground and other weird but fun things!! Then this morning we had a tour of the Sheep Farm. They showed us ...

... Lake Gunn. This is our first DOC site. DOC sites are characterised by excellent secluded locations with basic amenities, just the type we prefer. However next day we again end up taking time to get started. We are still not used to the time cycles of this part of the world. So we end up taking the cruise in the afternoon. Milford Sound must be one of the most beautiful places on earth. A deep calm lake like river flowing towards the ocean surrounded by high rise snow ...

... We only had a short coctail party that night, as the women were worn out from bartering at the trading post and it was getting a bit chilly outside. Herr Laurie told us that he'd heard a woman's foreign voice in the men's shower area and when he exited his shower cubicle, there was a european woman standing in the men's shower room, washing her teeth in a towel (her, not her teeth in the towel).  He asked her partner if she knew it was the men's room. "Oh, yes!" was his only reply ...

... a few photos. Then I went to the Arts Centre. It's an old converted university and now looks like a small English village, with little shops, exhibitions and there was a small market. It was a really cool place. I had my first Starbucks of my trip in Cathedral Square, it was deeeelicious. I went to the botanical gardens, which were ****, essentially just a park. I found the relatively modest Ernst and Young building and took a photo of perhaps the EY building ...

We didn't spend too much time in Wanaka as the weather was a little ****. Wanaka was beautiful though and we thought the camp site was the best we stayed in for the whole trip. Pretty awesome facilities - including spa pools that overlooked the lake! We also went to the movies - Wanaka's theatre is a classic... if you're in the area definitely take some time out to see for yourself. We decided to head to Queenstown and ended up just chilling for a few days waiting for the rain to go ...

... ground running with regards to work, as we had heard that work was hard to come by here recently as they are also in a recession. Becca had her first week at school which was a bit sudden but ultimately good to get some cash coming in again. So for the past three weeks i've been doing whatever temping they get me whilst everywhere looks at my cv, its not great admittedly but i'm getting enough to pay for my rent and sometimes my food too, which is pretty much all i wanted to ...

We just finished our first week of the school, and it was a little different than the future weeks will be since we had a lot of rules and logistics to go over. But we also started the school part as well. Our days are fairly long; I usually wake up around 6 or 6:30 and go to sleep around 11, and it is pretty much packed with things to do the ...

... outside of the Maori area. A Maori warrior came to the gate to greet the crowd of guests, and we were invited in to the area in front of the meeting house. There were some young girls that dance, and various speeches in Maori and English from Maori town leaders and from the mayor of Christchurch. After the greeting, some families became NZ citizens and included people from Malaysia, England, South Africa, Samoa and Fiji. Silke and I got a hangi lunch. This is the traditional way ...

... no joy. We searched the roadsides for about 5km but nothing, no smashed pieces of it in the road or anything so someone has it. Lucy was gutted and inconsolable for the rest of the day. We reported it to the police and Department of Conservation in Christchurch but nothing so far. It had all the pics of Sydney and New Zealand on, we filled a small memory card, luckily all the big ones are safe in my bag. We almost burnt them to dic that morning but didn't as we wanted ...

... and been told that the Bottle Lake Forest trails were pretty easy and having ridden them, I'd say they fall between the Green and Blue trails at Glentress where I work - with a few exceptions. There were some great fast sections that twisted narrowly between trees, the occasional unannounced jump, random northshore and sand dunes. Yes - sand dunes. A big stretch of the main loop runs parallel to the beach that looks over the Pacific and as a result seems to gather sand - in places so deep ...