Again it has been a while since last entry so here's the brief catch up...................

After walking the Queen Charlotte track in the Marbrough sounds we headed back to Blenheim for some wine tasting, which was great because lots of them offer free tasting!! Bad for Al though because he had to drive so spent the afternoon over the spit bucket, and i know thats the correct way to wine taste but myself and charlie had fun drinking them all!!  We did however end up buying a couple of bottles because they were delicious wines (my personal favourite being a Grove Mill Sauvingon Blanc 2004...wish it sold in the uk!)

Aftrer Blenheim we headed south along the east coast and camped on a beach near Kaikoura.  The first night was great, got a good camp fire going and managed to stay warm and dry despite the constant drizzle of rain, and the next day we went to visit a seal colony and saw lots of massive seals and also some pups which had climbed and swam up a stream into the plunge pool of a waterfall(we walked to the waterfall and found them playing by surprise!!) we watched them for quite a while because they were so cute!! That night we camped in the same spot by the beach but a storm decided to desend upon us and needless to say the tent did not hold up too well, so as soon as daylight came we packed up the soaking tent, in soaked through clothes( i also woke to find my boots full of water-and not just wet, i tipped water out of them, but had to wear them anyway because everything else was wet too!!) and we headed on to christchurch where we arrived on abi's doorstep rather worse for wear!!

That was about a week ago and since then we've been staying in Abi's beautifull Home/Art Gallery, soaking up Christchurch!!  At the weekend we all(abi,jamie, charlie, al and i) went to stay at jamies(abi's boyfriend) parents house near Hamner springs, so of course we visited the Hamner spings thermal pools, which were lovely!! There was lots of different temperature pools all natural sulpher heated and some you could only sit in for ten mins before you overheated, its outside so its nicer when its cold weather which it was for us!

In Christchurch we visited the main Art Gallery, spent about 4 hours at the Air Force Museum, attended an exhibition opening at Abi and Jamies art gallery and hired a row boat on the very english River Avon which runs through the very english Botanical Gardens.  We also just visited the Banks Peninsula (bit that sticks out from christchurch) and stayed there for a couple of nights.  It formed from three volcanoes erupting and the landscapes looks just how one would imagine from that, there is practically no flat land, and the roads are those scary thin one where if you misjudged one of the many sharp bends you could plunge down a vertical drop- no barriers!!! Then main town of the Peninsula is Akaroa which is a really lovely little town with a great museum and lots of visible french influence!! Its a trek to get there but definately worth it!  Back in christchurch tonight and then off to visit MT Cook.  Hopefully i'll have another installment soon.......................