wowsers its hot here.... Hi! So sorry for the lack of blog yesterday, after the brewery tour, late night and busy day following we were shattered. Plus the lounge of the hotel where we were staying was filled with some very noisy europeans who were not going to shut up for 5 mins, and there was no wifi :-(

So, the brewery tour :-P. FAB! They know how to do a brewery tour in NZ - quick walk round the working parts with a very funny guide, then a 30 minute tasting session. What made it so good we hear you ask? Well, maybe it was the fact they had 6 beers to sample. Maybe it was the fact you had to pour your own beers from their bar. Maybe it was a 30 minute drink all you can session? Yep - Unlimited drinks for that time - it was brilliant :-) And to top it off, Nathan (being of a drunk disposition at the time) decided to buy some souveniers, got talking to the manager who gave us a lovely gift box (cos it's our honeymoon!) on sale for $25 for free :-D So we left the brewery happy, drunk and carrying free beers.

That evening, we met up with Nathan's parents in the centre of Dumpedin. Had a lovely (massive) Thai meal and was great to catch up with them.

After sleeping in the freaky hotel room (old monastry) we were picked up at precisely 8:38 by a woman who was quite clearly married to Hitler in her younger days. We had a b******ing from her as we were holding her up, and she had other pick-ups in the city afterwards; our counter argument of declaring our ticket said an 8:45 pick up (and we were ready bar doing up our boots...?) fell on her oversized deaf ears. Apparently we should have known she would be nearly 10 minutes early, so we both made a concious effort to be mind readers for the remaining hours of the day. Mrs Hilter took us to the only "castle" in NZ, but it was more like a very posh grand house - only 5 bed 2 bath... not really castle scale if you ask us! Still, it was nice none the less, even if it was decked out head to toe in rare timber.

Onwards from there Mrs Hilter took us off road to see some birds. It did cross our minds that she was maybe going to leave us abandoned there for being naughty earlier, so Nat made an executive decision NOT to get out the coach when we stopped for photos and if the worst should happen, only Nathan would be left behind. Fortunately, Mrs Hilter left us late morning when we were taken to the Royal Albatross Centre, where we walked up a hill, sat in a room and tried to watch the big birds. They (the 4 that were sat on the hill) were not very exciting; although Nathan spotted something very interesting sat right in front of us on the rock - a little owl :-) It was soooooooo cute and gave us a personal flying display before settling back to pose on the rocks for more photos.

Whilst waiting for the (late!) transfer, Natalie got shat on. Twice. And she felt it. Don't think it was an albatross though - it didn't leave a bruise.

Next stop was the Penguin Place- a reserve for the very rare Yellow Eyed Penguins. First call was to the special hospital for the "special" penguins - the guide said they were injured but we both concluded they must have been born a sandwich short of a picnic for the ways they were "Swimming" round the pool ... LOL! Very cute though. Second call was to the actual reserve - overlooking a rather large beach where we saw real live wild (yeah, really real and alive! and wild!) Seals, Sealions, and of course the Yellow Eyed Penguins.

Last stop was a boat trip around Otago Harbour and Taiaroa Head - this was fantastic! We saw the albatross flying (very impressive - much more exciting than them sitting on their backsides all day) alongside more seals (Natalie wanted a pet baby seal - really cute and cuddly!) and many other sea birds including Petrels, Shags (hehehehe) Spoonbills, Oystercatchers, Herons and seagulls. BIG seagulls. Bigger than the Weymouth massive (and much less aggresive). So all in all, a good day once Mrs Hilter had departed, and Nathan had helped clear the poop off Nats shorts. http://www.wildlife.co.nz/tour_three.html

Thats about it for Dumpedin - the city itself was not the greatest; very dull and grey and not really a lot to do aside from the wildlife tours. Our hotel was situated not far from the red light district so expertly pointed out by Mrs Hitler earlier in the day, and was OK but nothing like some of the places we've stayed in.

Today (Sat) has so far been spent on a coach from Dumpedin to Christchurch (yey!). And thats as far as we've got ! :-) Sun is shining (about 24 degrees here) not a single cloud in the sky (well, from our window anyway). Free glass of wine at 5:30 too - yeyeyeyeyey :-) We hear there is a Christmas concert in the massive Hagley Park tonight, which we may just have a wander down to investigate (Ernie's never been to a concert)

Off to Kaikoura tomorrow with an awful start of 6:15 - ouch :-( Hopefully going whale watching in the afternoon, and hope to update you all again tomorrow :-)

Loads of love from us both x x x x x x x x