Yesterday was a very sad day - Phil is now well on his way back to Birmingham and I am all too aware of the big empty space next to me! I hear its snowing in Birmingham so he'll get quite the shock getting off the plane. We had to check out of the hotel at 10am, but Phil's flight wasn't until 5pm so we spent some time in a nice café in Christchurch before catching the shuttle to the airport. Before I knew it, I was on a shuttle back towards the city, feeling lik...

As today was our last full day together, we decided we'd celebrate Phil's birthday to make up for the fact that he'll be sitting on a plane for most of his actual birthday. We spent the morning packing up and taking Norah, our beloved campervan, back to the Christchurch depot. We were pretty sad to leave her behind but were soon comforted by our Salerno Motel Apartments. I'd booked a deluxe spa studio as a birthday surprise for Phil - we weren't disappointed! We ...

Today has been Phil's favourite day so far. Why? He finally got to try out surfing! We drove to Sumner, Christchurch for a group surfing lesson on Scarborough Bay this afternoon. The sun was shining and it turned out that there were just the two of us, so we got a private lesson for half the price! The lesson lasted 2 hours and an extra 2 hours using the wetsuits and surfboards afterwards is included in the price. I have to admit, I was pretty nervous and slight...

Man, I'm tired! We got up really early this morning to drive out to Havelock for our first water sport of the holiday - kayaking! Well, they were more like big, inflatable tandem canoes, but still! There were only 3 other people on our trip and we were driven out to the Wakamarina River - which apparently has lots of gold in it. There are some rapids along the river, just enough to make it exciting, but not so extreme that it becomes dangerous. We had an awesome ...

We drove to Blenheim this morning - a nice, small town about 25 minutes away from Picton. Our main reason for going was to visit the "i-site" - these information centres are all over New Zealand and they are so useful. They are full of leaflets and maps about the area and not only do they have good deals and recommendations, but they also book things for you, completely free of charge. This is especially helpful when you don't have a New Zealand phone number! I ...