Kokopu Estate Canterbury

... I have booked a magic bus ticket to tour the north and south island for only $440, a bargain (excluding accomodation). I start travelling tomorrow at 7.55am, my first stop is Kaikora.

I have done lots of job hunting this last week aswell so hopefully something will come of that, as weith no money I won't be able to stay the whole 12 months :-(

Hope you're not missing me too much.

I must admit I am missing all the hassle of everyday life at home, lol

Having booked accommodation that morning on-line, we stepped out of the airport into the chilly evening in search of some sort of transportation. It came in the form of a minibus, that dropped us and several other passengers to different destinations around the city. Our hostel, another wonderful YHA, was situated in the city centre, a 5min walk from pretty much everywhere. Clever Fran, the brains of the outfit, who already had 50pounds worth of currency ...

... arrived into Queenstown after a good 7 hours of driving to a short spell of rain - but were rewarded with a lovely rainbow over the town as the skies cleared. We headed straight for our accomodation and were delighted with it too (a modern suite laid out really well with everything you could possibly need - including an extremely welcome washing machine!). Day 38 Today we woke up not really knowing what we wanted to do - there is a massive variety of options - if you ...

We left Mount Cook at 10.00am, not knowing exactly where we were heading as this was the only night of our trip that we had not booked in advance. We had planned to do a flight over Mount Cook with a landing on a glacier before leaving but decided against it partly because we had had already had such a fantastic clear view of the peak (enough is enough) and also because, having decided to head for Christchurch, we had at ...

... We then decided that, due to the excellent playground, we would stay on the tent site for a further three nights. The camp sites in New Zealand are very good and most have good kitchen and laundry facilities, which are better than the facilities offered at many motels. After an hour and a half putting the tent up, during which time Yvonne was impressed with D's tenacity over getting the tent just right, albeit ...

... funny Polish guy. The Museum and Sunday market was excellent and quite a few, good standard street performers were around as well. We explored pretty much all of the city by foot (it's no bigger than Cambridge really) and took in all of the places of interest. After an early evening drink we got the bus back to the camp site for some dinner and to plan our day tomorrow in Kaikoura for Whale Watching.

... packaged as the Hanmer Springs Thermal Reserve for the past 120 years, so being in dire need of a hot bath we booked ourselves in for a spa pamper the following morning avoiding the weekend crowds. Our caravan park was a mere five-minute walk from town so we parked up and merely walked into town, where we had a stroll around and a coffee in a nice little café called the Powerhouse before heading back to the van for lashings of spaghetti covered in ...

... old building, although saying that, it seems every tourist info centre in New Zealand is housed in fine old buildings that are more often than not the nicest structures in their towns. Being a nice sunny day the pub next door had a live act playing outside in a courtyard but instead we headed for lunch at Zanzibar, the busiest restaurant in town which overlooked Caroline Bay, where the brunette ate a strangely meat and poultry-less Caesar Salad. After a quick food shop in Pak ...

... winding State Highway 75. We passed turn-offs to numerous little bays including Magnet Bay, Pigeon Bay and a curvy-yet-handsome, modern-romantic bay called Le Bons. After nearly overdosing once more on stunning views we arrived at the end of the line and the town of Akaroa, an attractive village as well as being the oldest village in the Canterbury region, and although its name doesn't sound French, it was in fact as French as Gerard Depardieu in a beret, smoking a Gauloise and ...

After an hour's flight, we lowered further, aiming to land where the other balloon had already done so, but an inversion bounced us back up for another ten minutes' floating along. This time, we landed successfully and then it was all hands to the pump - to keep the balloon silk from ripping on the fence at the edge of the field. That was great fun - like having a fight with a bouncy castle!