After arriving at our YMCA hostel at 3am with no luggage, we managed to catch a few hours sleep before heading out onto the streets at 10am to explore Christchurch. Very English in both appearance and weather with a cold wind, we felt very much at home (not sure whether this was a good or bad thing!) and found a place to get some breakfast before heading to our jailhouse accomodation for the next two nights. We had a lovely suprise awaiting us as our good friends Tim and Linds had left us a welcome message in the guest book. It made us smile alot and our annoyance of our bags disappearance seemed trivial! Luckily for us the sun came out in the afternoon and we spent our time chilling at the jail planning the first few days of our trip and eagerly awaiting a phone call from the airline to say our bags had arrived safely in Christchurch. No luck! We spent another night in the same clothes keeping our fingers crossed they would be delievered the following day. Our only consellation was the niceness of the hostel; this certainly didnt feel like jail to us!!

We had another great day of weather the next day which matched our even more joyous mood as our bags arrived around 11am. Wahoo, ive never been so excited to get a shower and put on some different clothes in a long while! After wandering around Cathedral Square and booking some accomodation we enjoyed a relaxing evening chatting to other travellers and excited about our chilled weekend in Hamner Springs after our disaster in Brisbane. The ups and downs of travelling.

We caught the 9.30am bus up to Hamner Springs which provided us with our first opportunity to ponder over the beautiful scenery of New Zealand. We were both excited about the wonderful sights that lay ahead in the next month. After arriving in Hamner and walking up to our hostel we were greeted by a really friendly guy who ran the hostel who informed us on the free tea, coffee (real coffee that is!), fruit and ice cream. We knew we were in for a great weekend! That afternoon we wandered down to the hot springs after sampling the ice cream and enjoyed dipping in and out of the 22 pools of differing temperatures. Ash didnt like the sulphorous one due to the smell but I quite liked it. Afterwards we sampled the New Zealand fish and chips and then cosied up in the upstairs lounge of our hostel which was like a log cabin. We got chatty to some great guys from Argentina and enjoyed an evening of good conversation. We even popped out for a beer in the local which was a different experience!!

Before heading back to Christchruch on the Sunday we made the most of the great weather and wandered around some of the walking tracks within the local area. Ash then cooked up a mean BBQ for lunch topped off with even more free ice cream. Great stuff. As we headed back to Christchruch we were both getting excited about the arrival of Ashs parents Julie and Pete in just over 24 hours.