After a few drinks and a few more drinks with Vicky and Kev in Sydney we had packed at 2am and then were up for 6am for a flight to christchurch. Ouch!! On the flight we got very excited by seeing Mount Cook and a few other mountians peaking out above the cloud. Once in Christchurch it's nice to have cooler temperatures compared to Australia. We made our way to the Canterbury Guesthouse which was very much like stopping in some ones house. We quickly set to task on getting a car and 24hours later we have a silver suburo legassy complete with camping gear named Shane. We call him Shane as the radio switches its self off after a couple of minutes so it reminds me of the Shane Richie TV game show where you have to sing the lyrics after the music has stopped. Whilst eating breako we feel an earth quake of 4.0 which felt like a big long lorry had just drove past. As the owners of the hostel didnt dive under the nearest table i refrained from diving under the table too, once the quake stopped the hostel owner joked that the resident cat must have been having a scratch. Suppose 4.0 is nothing to people who have experienced them quite often and many bigger.

We set off down the east coast in Shane in search of penguins and camp out at Department of Conservation (DOC) sites that are very basic with just a tiolet in some sites but are mostly very beautiful. The tent is not long enough for Andy so he has to sleep diagonal or in a ball.

We first find some Blue Penguins (Oamaru) and then the following day we find some yellow penguins (Dunedin) - success. We then head in land to try a bit of tramping (walking in the countryside), the towns we pass are very small and many of the bildings remind us of wild west films.

The road to our first tramp is a metallised road meaning it's not sealed but has stones on it. We have to cross a few small foirds and then we leave the car behind for what we think will take a few hours as it's mostly 4WD tracks. 5 hours later we arrive back at the car tired and hungry after reaching the top of Mount Kyeburn 1636M. We quickly learn that the walking times in NZ are not heavily exagerated like Australia and Asia.

We start to make our way back up to Christchurch to meet Alex who is due in a few days time and stop off half way in a lovely DOC campsite that's free and has some old hotel ruins from the gold rush days. We are the only ones here and it's so peaceful apart from the midges (sand flies) that come out at dusk and bite. That night at 4am we discover that a deflating airbed, wearing most of our clothes and a summer duvet are no match for a NZ cold night with southerly winds so we head off early and reach chirstchurch and treat our selves to a night in the cantebury guest house and shop for roll-mats, sleeping bags and tents.