We arrive at Christchurch airport to meet Alex who has been traveling for at least 36hours to get to NZ. It's great to see him again after 7.5 months but it's also a little surreal to have some one we know travelling with us. He looks a little spaced out so we decide on a campsite close to Christchurch with facilities such as showers allowing Alex to freshen up and have a good nights sleep. That night donned with our new warm things - sleeping bag, roll mat wit...

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...

Both Andy and i worked during the day on the 31st of December but as soon as we could we dashed home, donned our glad rags and headed for the city to meet Kev, Vicky and some others who we were going to the Botanical gardens with to celebrate NYE and watch the fire works in style, Oh Yeah!. Let me set the scene a little.... it's 6pm, the sun is still high in the sky, our sunglasses are on, the temperature is some where in the high 20Cs and everyone is in high ...

The festive season didnt feel very festive at first for us as not realising untill it was not here that the cold is a big part of Christmas. The Christmas trees where going up around Sydney but so was the heat... at least the rain had slowed. The first bit of special Christmas fun we had was on the Visy Christmas harbour evening cruise that Visy put on for it customers (Unilever). We met with fellow Unilever workers Samuele, Ineke & boyfriend Chris, Emily a...

The coach drew into Sydney from the North at dawn, two thoughts hit me through my groggy haze. 1) Oh wow! That's the Sydney Opera House. 2) I can't wait to get off of this bus and not have to get on another for a long time. On arrival at Central Station the coach unloaded and I had no clue as to where I needed to go to get to my pre-booked hostel at Kingscross or even how far away it was from Central Station. The people who had been on the coach didnt look lik...