Quality Hotel Pavilions Christchurch

... a community run campsite at Rakaia Gorge &#8211; at one point I was the only person there so was considered being dishonest and ignoring the honesty box but I was then joined by a couple who were on the committee so did the honourable thing and paid up. They had been in a secure part of the site and suggested that I move beside them as they were worried about me being in the public space on my own &#8211; very kind of them so I felt it only fair that I stumped up.<br><br>Next day I ...

... in the center of town to The Court Theater where the play was held there was an outdoor photograpy exhibition on fishermen that was neat, and on the way back we stopped in at an Italian cafe and bar and grabbed some pizza because it was happy hour and it was half price.<br><br>Each day we found plenty of stuff to do without having to pay much, if any money. The Canterbury Museum was free and much better than I thought it was; it was great and had a lot of stuff ...

... do I use these SIX pills for?" he asked. "They're SEX pills." she explained louder. "Ok, I now know there's SIX of them - but what do you do with them?". "SEX! SEX! They're for SEX! You Aussies are so funny! I worked over there for a while in a pub and the patrons continually asked me to say Fush 'n Chups!" she laughed. "Oh. Now I get it." brightly blushed Ol Dolly, with a grin on his face. "And what do they actually do for sex?". "They are full of caffeine and keep you awake." she ...

... of the local fish and chip shop, we take it back to the lodge to eat. Day 35 An early start today as we had pre-booked a swimming with dolphins encounter starting at 8.30. When we arrive we are given our wet-suits and then given a safety briefing, including advice on how to attract dolphins attention (diving, singing, making eye-contact the main one's). They are wild dusky dolphins which live year-round off the coast of New Zealand in their thousands. Swimming ...

... a 5 hour trip ahead of us. The drive after leaving the exhilaration of Mount Cook was bit of an anti-climax - how could you match that scenery? The route took us along very long flat straight roads - mile (or kilometre) after mile - cruising most of the way between 100 kph (the official limit) and 120kph. We stopped off for lunch (and a pee) at Geraldine, where we saw the largest jumper in the world (Guinness Book of ...

We had to start making it back for a flight and to be honest didn´t too much for the next couple of days, historical Oamaru had taken it out of us. I forgot to mention that we even went to see some historical theatre, which if it hadn´t been for the free drink would have been very disappointing indeed. Popped down the Banks ...

... most photographed building in the world according to one of the guides at Cadbury World, with Sydney Opera House being number 1. I think that's rubbish - what about Empire State Building, Westminster, Buckingham Palace etc?? The HQ of Cadbury's New Zealand is in Dunedin and we decided to visit the accompanying Cadbury World and take a tour. Quite informative and great smells everywhere of ...

John Denver Singalong anybody? No? Well fair enough.<br>Tis true - I am<br>indeed leaving on a jet plane .... but no where near having myself<br>sorted enough to the point that my bags are packed and I'm ready to go.<br><br>Right now in the other room my newly restored ipod is uploading<br>17,201 tunes into it's gorgeous little self so that despite all else I<br>will have some delicious tunes to accompany on my impending travels ...

... There was even a house dog to take for a walk on the beach, before we moved on to the glaciers - of which more next time. Hokitika also has an 'eco-world' where we fed the huge NZ eel and saw Kiwi in their nocturnal habitat. The Kiwi is basically a sphere with legs and a long bill, great bird but you can see why they are struggling against extinction.<br><br>North Island has been really suffering with floods and strong winds so our mere wet weather is just ...