CHRISTCHURCH THE REDEEMER DAY 42: Christchurch At last we had some weather that would allow us to explore the town and see a little more than the tourist shops we'd seen so far. And it changed my opinion of Christchurch totally. Perhaps I'd been a little unfair to start with as this place is still recovering from an earthquake that happened just two months ago. We headed out towards the Botanical Gardens taking in a few craft shops along the way. This was th...

PIZZA SO TASTY, THE EARTH MOVED DAY 41: Queenstown to Christchurch It was 7am and a little cold and wet outside. The last thing I wanted to do was leave Queenstown, let alone walk down a really steep hill with a really heavy backpack on. When our bus arrived at our meeting point we were greeted by a larger than life Kiwi, nicknamed f*** f*** (real name, Kerry). It didn't take long to understand the origins of his nickname, for every sentence contained at lea...

FERG OFF, YOU LUGER! DAY 40: Queenstown After a hearty breakfast of boiled eggs, toasted soldiers and yoghurt we made our way down the hill in to Queenstown. We had a bit of time to kill before meeting the gang, so we decided to take a walk around the stunning Queenstown Gardens in the warm sunshine. It is a lovely walk with great views of the lake and we saw a few people playing disc golf (basically you have to throw a frisbee into a chain basket, which loo...

HORSING AROUND IN MIDDLE EARTH WITH A FILM STAR DAY 39: Queenstown After waking up to the most spectacular view from our bed, we had a luxury breakfast (considering our others) of poached eggs on toast before Skyping our families. At about midday we walked down the hill into town to meet Lisa and Josh for today's activity. But before that, Josh convinced us to go to Cookie Time for a fresh, warm cookie and a glass of milk (on tap!). You have to take a bite o...

ROOM WITH AN INCREDIBLE VIEW DAY 38: Wanaka to Queenstown After checking out of the hostel and one last look around Wanaka we parked up outside the hostel and sat in the sun whilst we waited for our next Stray bus. When the bus arrived, it was pretty busy but we found a few seats near each other with Josh, Lisa and Laura. Our first stop as we drove through the Otago wine region was at Jones' Fruit Stall (well, more of a shop with a whole fruit farm attached ...