The weather took a turn for the worse on Monday morning and so Ash and I decided to visit the art gallery in Christchurch where they were holding an exhibition by Ron Mueck which had proved a big hit with the locals. I have more recently learnt that it was the most successful paid entry exhibition that the gallery had held and it certainly proved its worth to us. Im sure you`ll all agree from the photos that the sculptures that Ron creates are so life like they actually appear real. If it wasnt for the difference in scale (some are very small, others very big) it would take a lot of convicing to know otherwisel!! After a great morning we then headed out on the bus to the estuary were the wind was blowing even cooler. Ash investigated opportunites to kitesurf but decided against it. To be fair it would only be like kiting at home!!

Tuesday morning came upon us quickly and we were both really excited about Julie and Petes arrival. We decided to suprise them at the airport so after managing to jump on the free shuttle at our hostel, Ash made a 'Mum and Dad' sign and we stood in front of the double doors eagerly awaiting their appearance. After a long wait they appeared all grins and smiles. After many hugs and a few tears later (lots of hugs had been sent from the UK from different family members) we welcomed them to New Zealand as we headed for the bus in the pouring rain. Not the start we`d wanted but we explained we had already experienced all the seasons in the short time we`d been here so our hopes reamined positive.

We spent a few hours chatting and catching up on all that happened in the 3 months since we`d seen them before getting into our room at 2pm. The hostel was lovely and cosy and a great introduction to hostelling for Julie and Pete! Although the rain continued to pour we embraced the weather and kitted out in our waterproofs and made our way to Canterbury Museum. There were plenty of exhibits to see although Pete and Julie still felt like they were on the plane as the room kept swaying. They did really well to stay awake although after sitting through a 5 minute film on Fred and Mrytls Paua shell filled house, Pete fell asleep much to our amusement. We wandered around the streets in the rain abit more and then enjoyed a lasagne (this is what Julie always cooks us on our arrival to Filey so we thought we`d return the gesture!) before getting an early night. The next day we would pick up the car and start off on our road trip; each of us excited about what New Zealand had to throw at us!