Oh well, the first three days in New Zealand and the weather was like perfect English summer days, anyway last night Ga said it seemed "a bit chilly" then we woke up to this view (photo) off we went to see if we could get on the Whale-watch, we were first reserve and yes we got onboard. Guess what, the snow on the mountains are from a storm over night and although the sun shone it was still very windy, tail end of the Gale so rough at sea (some puked, we didn't) ...

Picked the car up Tuesday morning (it's ok considering 400,000 k on the clock), had a look around Christchurch and a lot of the centre was flattened in the earthquake a few years ago and although they're rebuilding a lot are just empty shells or level sites waiting to start construction, but still a few nice buildings that survived were worth a look. That afternoon we drove to Kaikoura not easy because the main route A1was closed bacause of the earthquake in Kaik...

After the flight to Melbourne from Uluru on Sunday we had a wander around the city, street art was good (but we missed a lot of it) Victoria Docks and a walk along the River Yarra were nice and we had a very pleasant oriental meal. Back to the hotel and an earlish start Monday for our flight to New Zealand, on arrival the Car Hire (Lucky Rentals don't use them) wouldn't answer their phone and when we got the out of office hours guy he said he didn't have a car fo...