We arrived in Nelson, said to be the place in New Zealand with the most sunshine, unfortunately not for us, very overcast and the majority of the days activities (anything involving planes, and water) were cancelled which was a real shame! We decided to walk into Town along the waterfront to kill some time before going for dinner with the whole group to celebrate Anja's birthday. The restaurant was really lovely and by far the best food of the trip so far! It is apparently custom at this place to put the birthday girl/boy in the stocks and splatter them with cream pie type things, Anja is a really good sport and took it very well. After that we all played a few games of 'Ring of fire'!

The next morning we head over to Kaikora for some dolphin and whale watching, again unfortunately because of the iffy weather it was cancelled so a quite overhung bus were taken wine tasting! We tried about 7 or 8 different wines from the Vineyard and they were absolutely lovely, such a shame that I couldn't buy any to take home, don't think they would survive very well in a backpack for another 3 months! We arrived in Christchurch with time to explore the city, we head off to view the cathedral, war memorial bridge and gardens. Christchurch reminds me quite a lot of Canterbury, which I like! The following morning we met another 15 people who would join us down to Queenstown and then head around to the local Art Market who have some lovely things before going along to the botanical gardens which were absolutely beautiful.