Well I'm now in New Zealand, and what a trip here!! I had to get the night bus back from Kyoto to Tokyo to get the plane, so another 8 hour journey with no sleep, after discovering that my legs have been bitten to shreds by mozzies. Those b*****s must have been mutants because these bites are HUGE. I did the sensible thing and bought a mosquito clicker device that gets rid of them, but do you think I packed it? NO - of course I bloody didn't. I truly am amazing. Anyway, got the 9 hour flight from Tokyo to Sydney, and the first hour and a half we had some really severe turbulence. Never have I heard a cabin go so eerily silent, and all the faces around me were deathly white. All you could hear was the overhead luggage going crazy banging and crashing around, and a poor kid a couple of rows up from me was puking his guts up in the paper bags - he went through several bags. Oh the glamour of economy! Got To Sydney and within half hour was on my transit flight to Christchurch which took a couple of hours, and guess what!? - Yep, they lost my luggage. After spending a while watching the big space where my bag should have been, I wandered over to the baggage queries where there was a big queue. Clearly my bag was not the only one to go walkabouts. I was told that it would be coming on the night flight as they were too slow to get it on my transit flight, so I was given a little bag with Quantas airlines shorts and t-shirt to sleep in, and toothbrush e.t.c. Got to the Hostel and took a wander down to the Christchurch Cathedral and Botanic Gardens which were beautiful, but thats about all there is to do in this place. Its so quiet too, only 1 million people.

Went to bed and when I woke up there was my bag, delivered to my room. BIG sigh of relief. I met Vicky Hobson from Gapyear, and we wandered into town and spent the afternoon in the garden of a cafe/bar having lunch and drinking plenty of wine whilst people watching. Its sunny but FREEZING. Its spring here, but hopefully should be warming up soon, which is why when we get the Stray bus tomorrow we are heading to the north Island first as its warmer there by 5'C, and then as it warms up in 4 weeks we'll be back in the south Island. Its probably warmer in the UK right now, but at least its New Zealand!!!!!!!!

Its monday and me and Vicky joined the Stray bus tour this morning. We are now in Kaikoura and both of us just took a trip in a small 4 person plane over the sea to do some whale spotting. We saw a Sperm whale which was over 18 metres long, bigger than the boats that went to see it. It was awesome, we were really lucky to see it as they go diving to feed for over an hour and pop up for 10 minutes, so just as we got there he surfaced for us. The backdrop is snow covered mountains, its like something of a postcard, so breathtakingly beautiful. We are stopping here overenight then off to catch the ferry tomorrow to go the North Island. This country is amazing, 1 million people in the south island and 3 million people in the north!!