The Charlotte Jane Boutique Hotel Christchurch

We stayed in a lovely apartment for Niamhs last night. We strolled around Christchurch but really didn't think much about the place but then the weather wasn't great so that prob didn't help. We wanted to go punting on the river but started to rain so couldn't do that. We got a tram around the city which really didn't take that long but we had to do something touristy! We dropped Niamh off at the airport after loading her up with lots of ...

... The Doc' really opened up the throttle. He threw the boat along the river at ridiculously fast speeds at some points, just inches from the rock faces in which the river was carved. Doc would speed in a straight line and then do 360 degree turns, coming to an immediate stop before opening up the throttle again. Don't worry mums it was perfectly safe. It was awesome!!!!<br><br>Lake Mahinapua <br><br>We were on our way to the legendary 'Pu-pub' next to Lake ...

Today Kareen (my friend from Ireland) and me went to Lyttleton. Here we did a hike up a large hill (the name of which is in one of the photos, too lazy to check). We had great weather today, although the trek was quite tiring and the heat made it more exhausting. But once we got to the top of the hill the views were impressive. I climbed over some rocks and large stones to get to the ...

... and we left at 9 to catch our 7 hour bus down to Queenstown.<br>My god the scenery is amazing i mean i have never in all my life seen anything like it there is just nothing here but mountains, lakes, snow peaks, vast plains its incredible and the water is crystal blue not muddy like our lakes but blue. Honestly i could watch it for hours.<br><br>We stopped off for lunch at a Salmon fish farm and as we were sitting drinking our tea a little voice went "were you in ...

... car might die (and therefore sufficiently distracted me from my fear of driving on the other side of the road) but after a brief stop we got back on the open road. We spent the rest of the day driving to Mount Cook, which was supposed to only be about 5 hours away, but I swear it took around 7. We stopped at Lake Tekapo and had a delicious buffet dinner, but then by the time we got back on the road it was dark. So considering we really had ...

... to take a helicopter flight up to Franz Josef Glacier, however unfortunately the morning flights all had to be cancelled due to poor weather (it was cloudy so they couldn't land on the glaciers). We decided to head on to Pancake Rock as planned rather than wait to see what the weather did. On route we stopped for lunch at Hokatiki then progressed up to Greymouth to find our way around. Greymouth is a funny place with not a lot to do or eat, which is a bit odd ...

... and the sweet little street with pastel coloured buildings. I was lucky to be here on a day where there seemed to be a lot going on. There were opera singers in the square, followed by a group of Maori dancers, giving a great performance under the shadow of the Cathedral spire. The Cathedral itself is stunning, particularly its rose window. Overall, Christchurch seems like a great place to be. I was certainly looking forwards to my return visit.

... When we got to Greymouth we had a lunch stop. Daddy went shopping for snacks, while the rest of us went for a walk along the riverfront. It was really beautiful. As we were walking back to the train station we met up with Dad who had bought some awesome food for snacks on the train. We got back on the train and headed back to Christchurch. On the way back we all got to the viewing platform and we all ...

... We decided to book into a motor camp because we hadn't showered in 4 days and we wanted to be clean for our skydive; plus we needed to do laundry. I got talking to a guy from Hungary in the laundry room called Endie (Andy) who is traveling around New Zealand with his brother and actually hoping to settle here. D-Day ... the day the girls flew!!! We pottered around all morning killing time and not saying much (due at airfield at 12 noon). A gravel path and passed some ...

... outside viewing area. You won't find that in the US! The Auckland airport was very clean. I think we saw a cleaning crew walk by at least every 30 minutes cleaning or polishing something. There was also plenty of comfortable seating and rows of typical airport seats that thankfully had now arms, so it was easy to find a place to stretch out or lay down. Finally after our all day tour of the Auckland airport, we boarded our NZ air flight to ...