Millennium Christchurch

... with a brief open mic night scene of awkward dark comedy. The man performing was gloomy and had little response in the form of laughs, but nonetheless you couldn’t stop watching him. I felt like I was watching a compressed dark indy comedy. Flash forward, we wake up and I forgot my spaceship pillow at the Stonehurst. Shiza!

Brooks

Christchurch was marvelous. From the first night we were there and merely looked around a bit, we all said we thought it was a cool city and we would enjoy our time there. We immediately found things to do: after picking up a program for the Arts Festival, I saw that there was a stage version of "The Great Gatsby" playing every night for the rest of the week and had to go. Dom decided to go as well, so we picked up tickets for the next night. Along the way from Cathedral ...

... s annual rainfall. The water pressure built up below the glacier and exploded causing the river bed below to be thrown up through the glacier and land on top. It has take 6 years for the rubble to descend from the top of the glacier to the bottom where it sits now and will take only another 9 months to go away completely.

So we put on our crampons (those spikes that you attach to the bottom of your boots to allow you to walk on the ice) and set off up a very ...

... instead. Get over it shopkeepers. You get customers at your door.  Everyone has operating costs in business.  Next stop was Oamaru. A nice little harbour town with a sign announcing "Penguins". Everyone loves penguins, so we turned in to see the penguins. Guess what? No penguins. They're nocturnal. We look at the seawall where penguins might congregate later, and leave. I must admit, Oamaru has some quaint old buildings that look inviting for a peek, but we scarper off anyway.  We ...

This morning, we woke up early and cleaned Stephanie's bathroom to bless her. Throughout this week, we have tried to serve and bless all of the people who have blessed us. The rest of the teams were meeting at the church at 10 am, but Stephanie had to go to work, so we arrived there at 8 am. It was a little bit cold outside, but Kathryn and I had a lot of fun. First, we had a pretty deep conversation, and then we just passed ...

... boat, with a trampoline suspended at the bow between the pontoons, perfect for standing or lying on (but no jumping).  Then the rain and wind started. I was now cold and wet, along with being utterly miserable.  The yellow plastic poncho did not seem to help much ...  Not even the hot instant coffee did much to revive my spirits.  (Trying to hold the cup and not have the water drip under the poncho...  Can you tell I was having fun ?!) Fortunately, the precipitation lasted ...

... Skirt'. - The amount of cigarettes these guys smoke, one would think the Marlborough Sounds was sponsored by a certain cigarette company. - There is a strong sense to go green. Having been endowed with so much natural beauty, there is an obvious underlying desire to protect it. For example, all toilets everywhere have a 'half' and a 'full' flush to conserve water. - These guys seem passionate about their Rugby, and everything outdoors in general. Go Blacks!!

on the plane over from aussie land i did alot of soul searching, thinking back on my whole trip. it was nice and relaxing to just think about everything and how i´ve felt doing everything. it was 6 pleasant hours, uneventful but at the same time exciting. new zealand a country on the other side of the world that i dont know anything about! wohoo! and in a couple of days the big tour starts! the first day here ...

... on a tour and eat at the same time, ideal! Christchurch is about 8 hours from where our little house is and so on the way back to St Arnaud we decided to stop off in Kaikoura again and grab a Subway - and then travel back up the coastal highway which is beautiful to Blenheim and visit Mount Riley Vineyard on the way back to "STOCK UP"on one or two things. I also purchased some very nice Olive oil pressed in the house over the road from the vineyard - it is delicious!

... for the evening of the 14th. During that time I will take in dolphin swimming, penguin spotting, albatross nesting, balloon flying, cable car riding, four wheel driving, wine drinking, and of course, **********ING Z*RBING. I fly to Sydney on the 13.50 out of Auckland, and then it's a 23hr flight to Heathrow. *UCH. Arrive in Heathrow bright and early (5.30am - must check to see what time the tube starts out of T5, the first train out of ...