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 least one 'f***'. And he always ended with 'sweet as' in true Kiwi style. Legend.

Our mini coach only had a handful of people on, so it was a fairly quiet journey on our way to Christchurch. We stopped for some brunch in Cromwell, a small fruit farming town in the Otago region, before making our way through the beautiful valleys again. It wasn't long before Kerry told us a legendary story of a sheep named Shrek who lived near here.

Shrek had gone missing for 6 years, meaning he had missed his annual shearing for each of those years. When he turned up one day, he had an enormous 28kg of wool on him. The media made a national hero out of him, and he toured the country to raise money for children with cancer. He even met the Prime Minister and set a world record by being the first sheep to climb an iceberg. Classic.

We stopped at Lake Tekapo for lunch where, normally, you can see the enormous Mount Cook. But today, as usual for us in the last two weeks, the view was hidden by cloud. Still, Lake Tekapo is beautiful with its stunning opal coloured water which is died that colour by the powder from the rocks washed down by the glacier.

The next few hours mainly consisted of dozing until we reached Christchurch where we checked in to the same hostel we stayed at last time, Stonehouse. After chilling out for a bit we headed out in search of Pizza.

We found Winnie Bagoes, which we'd read and heard good things about, after being diverted to a new premises (they had to relocate due to the recent earthquake). Having placed our order from the delicious menu, we waited patiently as other people's tasty-looking orders arrived. Then, all of a sudden, the room shook and wobbled like one of those fun houses at the fair. It was another aftershock - they've had over 3,000 in Christchurch since the earthquake in September. It was so weird, like being drunk or at sea.

Shaken, but not stirred, our flatbread (simply superb) and pizzas arrived. Quite literally the best pizzas I've ever had. We opted for the half and half option; a chicken, brie and cranberry half and a Morrocan lamb half. Exquisite. We even managed to save some for tomorrow's lunch, which is unheard of for us.

A little walk around the shops en route back to the hostel before chilling out for the evening.