Addington City Motel Christchurch

... stopping at the Moeraki Boulders along the way. Then on our final day we headed to Christchurch. We visited Ine and Justin, a Dutch girl from Erik's hometown and her kiwi boyfriend. And then we had dinner and slept at Tracey and Owens place, it was great to see her again after 6 years. She showed us the portrait she is painting for me and Erik and it looks awesome so far. All in all Erik and I drove 2000km, and saw heaps of stuff.

... a small jet boat and went around the lake to see the icebergs. Some were huge - some were tiny.
And we were all ready to see one roll over as this is what happens every now and then when a big piece of ice falls off as it melts which re-balances the ice berg.
When it rolls the ice berg is crystal clear but after a few minutes the berg begins to turn white as it reacts with the oxygen.
It was fascinating to see icebergs that ...

... of a hill! I couldn't get a great picture, but it was so cool to actually see one in real life! As soon as we arrived in Queenstown, we dropped Eilidh off at the medical clinic so she could figure out what really happened to her knee. About an hour later, we picked her up with her new crutches and knee brace. As it turns out, she had not fractured any bones, but had in fact (as we thought) torn her ACL. I must say that despite her serious injury, she sure handled it like a ...

... on a train for several hours. I've read about 20 books since I've been in New Zealand. I normally just carry around two at a time and switch them out at hostels' book exchanges. It's pretty nice having a wide slection of books I haven't read pretty much wherever I go.

Anyway, today I flew up to Aukland (and boy, are my arms tired), where I'll be for about three days. Then ... well, I'll leave that until the time comes.

... i should really know this). During my time there i walked around the city admiring the building and went to the botanitcal gardens in the city centre. I went around the local markets and enjoyed a really good Street Performance show. I spent ages walking around the Canterbury Museum and checked out some of the local art gallaries too.

... with minor color changes (and traffic lights - later). Not in this place. A large pond at the entrance of the carpark that we drove around, fluoresced with brilliant blues and greens against the grey granite & white quartz. And then the damn picturebox battery went bum-up right at that moment. Bugger. Viewing of the glacier required less walking here, but the rain was pelting down really hard as we traversed the huge riverbed of granite. 4 tubby people in tight clear plastic ...

... to be done, despite being told it does by 1000 other, more responsible, more trustworthy mechanics! anyway, after our first stay in alice, it was time to depart to take the long, windy road back down south, back passed the camel farm, back to the erldunda roadhouse and finally to ayer's rock! enroute to the rock resort, we passed by mount conner, which is often thought, by many a tourist, to be ayer's rock. unfortunately not, but it made for a great photo op, this giant ...

... in this vineyard have won more than 100 gold medals.  Impressive.  All I can say is that the wine we tasted was very good.  Merina took the photos; I was otherwise occupied and she could not participate.  We stopped for lunch in the town that was home to Ernest Rutherford, the Nobel Prize winning nuclear physicist.  Then in was on to our hostel: Old MacDonald's Farm.  (No, I'm not kidding.)  The boys opted the sleep in tents; Merina and I chose the dorm cottages. Day 8 ...

... for Steve is that once we were both finally in, we realised he had his on inside out!! Back to blooming square one!! So after that debacle we sneak out of the loos (well i sneak, Steve doesn't need too!!) and head quite self consciously to the instructor, thank goodness it turns out that we are the only lunatics that want to surf on a cold windy day, we have the instructor to ourselves, and despite how ridiculous we look, we are still very much ...