So we have landed in New Zealand all safe and sound - well kind of!! We had a bit of a mad night on our last night in Oz - may have got a little bit drunk and partyed all afternoon with Jess a guy we met on safari - going to local bbq's and dancing around Julie's (Jess' girlfriend) flat whilst polishing off some fine australian beer - followed by our first night in Christchurch spent in jail!!!! aaahhhhh pretty scary!!!

I will begin on saturday. We were in our hostel in Brisbane when we received a call from Jess, he was down in Brisbane and used our website to good effect to track us down! So we arranged to meet him at the place he was staying - The Vic - an old student haunt from his uni day. The first beer was very kindly bought for us at 1pm! Then Sarah and I popped back into town for a couple of hrs to check everything was ok with our flights and to see the scissor sisters!!

Yep the scissor sisters were making their only Australian public appearance ahead of their national tour, starting in Brisbane. We could not be bothered to queue up for hours to get an autograph so i just got Sarah to use her charm and viciousness to barge to the barriers to get a few shots of them!!! Then we went back to the pub where Jess was on his way to being drunk, and his friend James was most definitely already there!!!!

We had a couple more drinks before James' girlfriend picked us up and took us to one of their mates' birthday bbq's! On out way there we visited one of the most popular establishments in Oz - the drivethrough bottle shop. Just drive in, some guy asks you what you want, we ordered 2 crates of beer, he comes out with 2 crates of nice refridgerated beer!! bargain!! A bit more beer drinking and cricket followed under the brisbane sun.

Next stop was fortitude valley for a pizza, and on to Julie's flat. Here we decided to finish off all of the beer, play a few silly games, and dance the night away before getting a taxi back to the hostel at about midnight ....... time to pack. I cant say i was the most considerate dorm room mate that night with my mix of loud packing and stumbling about but, all in all - it aint so bad!! we managed not to forget anything and got to sleep at about 2am.

Beep beep beep beep the sound of the alarm clock - a good 2 hours has passed!! yep a full 2 hrs sleep! time to get up, grab some toast and go to the airport. We made the flight all fine, just a little tired - my eyes looked like i had been taking copious amounts of drugs for the last 20 yrs, but got a lot better after a nap on the plane. We then touched down at about half 2 local time.

Christchurch is really really beautiful!! The weather here is just like at home on a nice summers day, we are near the sea and the mountains so the air is really fresh and a nice wind keeps you cool, whilst your bones are kept warm by the afternoon sun.

We were then approached by a guy in the airport who made us get in his car and took us to jail. luckily he was not a police officer but a cab driver, and the jail is our hostel. Set in an ex prison that only shut down 8 yrs ago this hostel is really cool. All clean and confortable and each room is set in a cell in the prison. Its just like staying on the set of bad girls, our door to our room is a 100 ton reinforced steel door and the rooms are definitely not big!!

They have even left a few rooms untouched woth some artwork on the wall from the last residents of the room, as well as the solitary confinement room, with a trap door to a pitch black cellar beneath the floor for really naughty ppl!!

Overall the city is amazing! really pretty, clean and fresh and ... very british. from the river Avon with the boats going up and down and chasing the ducks to the cathedral in the centre!

Thats enough for now, we are picking up our hire car on wed which we have for the full month! so off we go into the NZ wilderness!! Will keep you posted, and expect some even more impressive Peter Fletcher photography, i have bought myself a tripod now for even better pics!!