Hi there boys and girls. Well its my (Nathan) turn to do the blog today, Nat is too busy reading her book and sunbathing on the grass! Sorry to rub it in guys we know the weather back home is s***e! We are not looking forward to coming home. :-( Oh and by the way the view I am having to put up with while I type this is the one used for the blog pic. Such a hardship!

So then to continue where we left off yesterday... After we got booted out of the library in Christchurch, we went for a lovely meal in an Italian resturant, the same one we went to on day 1. Very nice!

Right then as we mentioned yesterday we had heard about some xmas concert in the park, so after our meal we headed up to Hagley park which was just a short walk from our B&B. WOW!!!! When we got there it was packed. There was a massive stage and basically everyone was sat or standing enjoying music and singing on stage, including xmas carols some UK pop music but but also some NZ stuff we'ed never heard before but was pretty good.

Wait... it gets better. Me and Nat managed to squeeze our little bums into a nice space quite near the front but also by the, at the moment dark, huge xmas tree. So next the whole crowd does a countdown and bing the tree is lit beautifully!

Can t get any better I hear you say, well yes.... Next Santa makes his appearance in a giant kind of sleigh thing all lit up on top of a lorry. It looked great and the kids were going mental.

Oh but peeps it doesnt end there!!.... next we are treated to an exclusive of Coca Colas (who by the way have sponsored the event) Rugby World Cup anthem. It was a truly amazing spectacle which I will do my best to describe. I videod the whole thing so if you see it when we get back you will love it! So basically the song (which was very good) is sung by a load of NZ pop stars (again very good singing). Next a mass of smoke rises up behind the stage and floats across the crowd all lit up red by lights, then some kind of balloons come out of somewhere and are somehow lit up?! Then a load more small balloons are let loose which float away, along with some massive ones which are hit around by the crowd. You following me so far? To finish there are masses of people on stage dancing etc and lots of cool fireworks! Awesome!

To finish off a great night they have a massive firework display, which again I have videod. It put Weymouth fireworks to shame!

We were buzzing when we left and will always remeber the experience and atmosphere, aswell as whenever we will hear Bon Jovi, Living on a prayer it will always remind us of being there and singing at the top of our voices to it!! What a night to remember. Thats what this is all about right?!!

So onto today (Sunday) we had a very early pick up at 6:15am to get us to the station, to go on the Transcoastal train (http://www.tranzscenic.co.nz/services/tranzcoastal.aspx) to Kaikoura, our next stop.

We were blown away by our next accomodation (http://www.lemontree.co.nz/index.html) it has got to be the best so far. Very nice welcome, lovely building, our room is very nice and the location looking over the long beach and mountains (as you can hopefully see on the pic), and to finish it off we were given a bootle of champagne as its our honeymoon! Nice!! Which by the way we will be drinking tonight while in the Jacuzzi which also looks over the same view!! I tell you what this place just gets better and better and has one suprise after another!

Which brings us onto our trip today. (http://www.whalewatch.co.nz/) We were taken a short distance by bus to the small harbour in Kaikoura where we boarded a very speedy boat to take us out to see the whales! Woohoo! It was a bit choppy out at sea, fortunately no sickness, but it made it great fun bouncing over the massive swells.

We were told that they normally only see 1 sometimes 2 whales if theyre lucky... well Nat being pooped on yesterday brought some luck and we saw 4!!! It was amazing seeing them, so graceful and seeing each one dive with the typical tail in the air was incredible! I have taken loads of pics as I have a good zoom on my camera, so unfortunatley no pics to put on apart from one Nat took. She did some video but this website doesnt seem to like uploading them?! So again youll have to wait until we get back.

Right so now its nearly 5:30pm here, Nat has fallen asleep face down on her book bless her. So soon we will head into town for some grub then come back and chill in the Jacuzzi. Its a hard life.

Off up on the train and coach to our last stop in the South island tomorrow in Nelson, which we have heard is very nice. Thats what we like to hear. Not such an early start thank god, 9:15 pick up :-)

Well I hope yove enjoyed todays blog. This is Nathan signing off. :-)