Halfmoon Cottage Akaroa

... that we found a little cafe with French food for lunch.  Another great dining experience.  Nothing unique about the food here but much like SF, it's got very good samplings of any type of food from around the world.  Also, a notable stop as it was Cynthia's first try behind the wheel.

... is now up, and i am now thinking that soon we won't be able to see any of the rock, but instead it appears to give off an even richer red shade. no-one is around. everything is silent. the wolf creek killer could jump out of a bush at any minute, but the atmosphere is too good to worry about such trivial matters! instead, with absolute quiet, no stupid tourist groups around, we were able to walk around the last section of the walk, looking up at the now intensely burnt ...

For outreach in Christchurch tonight, I was on the prostitute team again, and we are still seeking vision for our time, so we hung out in the square for about an hour with some of the other groups, and then we went to Manchester Street, broke into groups, and prayer walked again for about 20 minutes. My group was able to talk to a woman, and it was an awkward conversation and didn't flow as smoothly as last week ...

From Ray- We felt like we needed to write the visitors bureau an apology for not spending a month in Christchurch.  We only had a morning and we did the proverbial city tour.  There was a lot going on including an international flower festival and with a name like Christchurch, I thought it would be interesting to visit the Anglican church in the town square ( admission 5 dollars). We didn't go inside the church, but had a sandwich at ...

... contained in various different outbuildings. These included exhibitions on local history, printing, Maori artefacts, farm machinery and stuffed birds. The museum is also the site of a Maori meeting house and, across the road, two long Maori canoes which have been restored. When we were there, there were few other visitors (other than the sheep which wander around the grass between the buildings housing the exhibits) and no one to take our entry ...

... Laura and she is a truely lovely girl from scotland. I spent a few hours checking my email, and having a bite to eat, then headed back to the hostel to prepare for an early morning the next day. In the room, laura was all calmed and we had a good old gossip where we figured we were on the same tour and so would spend the week together. We got a shuttle to the train station.and boarded the Tranzalpine train to Greymouth, i was in coach f which had all tables, and our own ...

... I made friends with a couple of German girls, Jenny and Petra, on my boat, so had someone to shiver with after we got out. The good thing about my trip, actually, was that it was specifically geared towards swimming with dolphins, rather than looking at them - as soon as we found a pod we could swim with (only our second one, within about ten minutes - you can't swim if they have calves, that's more or less the only restriction) we got straight in and ...

... together out of scale maps on the backs of brochures, keep in mind that north isn't always up (damn you jiffy rentals). I set out early the next morning in my blazing red Nissan something-or-other stationwagon rental car, taking time to enjoy the finess of driving on the left side of the road while simultaneously navigating a map which magicly folds itself to some other city whenever you ...

... through central Dunedin and am now fully versed in the procedures involved in making New Zealand chocolate. The Oompa-Loompa told me it tastes different because the milk here is different; considerable work on the free samples leads me to believe he could be right. The factory is full of mystery doors carrying intriguing labels; what goes on in the 'sensory evaluation room' we ask?<br><br>Having survived the steepest hostel driveway yet, we then moved ...