Firstly, if any of you pay attention to the timezone (above) we are actually 13hours ahead.

Ok, so we arrived into Christchurch and spent nearly 2 hours in the airport due to having our bags searched in customs. Like Australia, New Zealand is really strict about what you bring into the country - especially from Australia, as I have heard snakes and spiders found here have been bought from Australia!!! So, as we had a tent that we used along the Great Ocean Road in OZ they wanted to search it (and clean it!!). It took a good 30 mins while we waited and when the lady came back she looked really annoyed as apparently there was an earwig in there! haha. Anyways after she looked through our bags we were free to go and we got the bus into the centre of Christchurch!

We went to our hostel and checked in and then went out to explore the city - looking in the tourist information etc etc. We also went to a pub (the Holy Grail) which claimed to have the biggest screen showing sport in the southern hemisphere! it was much like a cinema. After a nice half pint of Tui (NZ beer) we made our way back to the hostel for an early night after having to get up at 4am that morning!!!

The next day we did all things tourist - the tram, gondola, and wandering around the park etc. It also was Sam's birthday so we also gave him a present (golf-related!) and stopped for a drink mid-afternoon on the street pictured above. It was really quaint as was the city as a whole. We also got cornered by the Tourist Information centre to send a video message home, which (I'm sure they won't mind me mentioning) made my whole family cry!!! Typical Griggs'!!! In the evening we went out for a carvery and a few drinks for Sam's birthday and after having a couple of drinks in the Base Hostel we went on the search of some livlier bars. Just when we thought the whole of Christchurch was deserted we stumbled upon an Irish Bar and had a good boogey to some live music. The lead singer also happened to have his birthday on March 5th so Sam got on the stage with him and the whole bar sang happy birthday to them!!! The bar was frequented by many uni students who were wild!!!! I began sounding really old when i was disapproving and saying I wasn't like that at that age!! (Apparently I was....im just old and boring now!!!!). It was a good night though and we retired relatively early to get up for our connection to the train station at 7.20am!!!!

We got to the train station the next morning, took our luggage to the back carriage and found our seats on the Tranz-Alpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth. We sat down and there were two couples sitting opposite us - they mentioned they had been following the boys' crazy hats all the way to NZ and when Sam said we only arrive 2 days ago they knew as they had apparently been on the same flight from OZ!!! Turns out they were from Surrey - Reigate (where my Mum is from) but one couple used to live in Chichester!!! Small World!!! The scenery on the train route was amazing!!! There was an outside carriage where you could go and get good photos but everyone seemed to have the same idea and it was really hard to get a good view so I gave up and went back to the seat where the scenery was still visable!

When we got to Greymouth we got a taxi to the camp site and set up camp for the night. We then walked back along the coast to the town. The beach was amazing - the sand was grey and there were loads of amazing stones and logs/branches. Andy Goldsworthy would have had a field day!!!! In the town we went on the hunt for some camping stuff (metal plates and cutlery) and food in the supermarket for dinner. We got a taxi back and cooked dinner before heading to bed. The facilities at camp sites over here is amazing - massive toilet and shower blocks, sky tv, internet, kitchens, bbqs and laundry!!! The next day we were picked up by a taxi at 10.15 to go to a place called Shantytown which is one of those villages preserved for visiting (much like the Wield & Downland in Singleton). We did some Gold Panning, caught a steam train and looked around for a couple of hours before being picked up by the taxi again to take us back to Greymouth Train Station for the InterCity Bus (the buses we have booked to take us around New Zealand) to take us to Fox Glacier. We went to the supermarket to get food for dinner and had lunch before boarding the coach.

The coach journey was really good - the driver gives a commentary and stops regularly to give himself stops as well as showing us relevant points of interest. We stopped at a place where we saw Kiwi's in a wildlife centre and also a Jade Factory and Gold Jewellery shop where they had massive lumps of the stuff worth $16,000 for its weight!!!