Hi all,

Didn't make it for drinks - I fell alseep - such a party animal!  Had to be up at 6am for my next bus trip to Lake Tekapo.  Managed to get up on time (thanks to Joanne Seeley putting The Prodigy on my mobile - if anything is going to get me up it's hearing I'm a fire starter, twisted fire starter!)

Wasn't sure what to expect from Lake Tekapo - have heard it's very tranquil with a lovely bright blue lake.  Sounds great.  It took 7 hours to get there.  Am still in my same routine on the bus - I look at the lovely scenery, fall asleep, eat, look at the lovely scenery etc....

We stopped off at a few places on the way so It feels like I'm seeing more of NZ.  Omarama is home to Merino sheep (didn't see any though!), Mount Cook is the highest point in NZ (3755m)  didn't see that either because of the clouds!  Stopped by Lake Pukaki and then into Lake Tekapo.

Lake Tekapo is just one street in the midde of nowhere.   The bus dropped me off a the local grocery store and that was it.  My hostel was 400m down the road.  It was torture pulling that bloody bag but thank god for the wheels because it's too heavy to lift.  Think I am slowly getting fitter though.

The hostel was worth the walk.  It faces the lake so the views are amazing.  Managed to bag myself my own dorm as long as I didn't mind not having lake view - fine by me!  Bunk beds are tiny and I keep hitting my head.  I daren't climb up to the top in case I can never get back down!

There isn't much to do around here except go walking, biking or kayaking - it's far too cold for the latter so I might try a walk - well, maybe tomorrow!

Met 2 sisters - Kate and Vicky and got chatting to them.  Decided that we all deserved a day off so we watched Grease followed by our canyon swing dvd's  Watching it again brought back the feeling of fear - it's good though.

 We got a takeaway for dinner and the man on reception drove to pick it up for us - he warned us that it was very nice so to be safe I order vegetable chow mein.  It was ok until I was munching away and found a hair in it!  Gross.  I had to eat half a packet of Tim Tams to make myself feel better!

Am going back to Christchurch later today. Pick up around 2ish. I've booked a different hostel this time - it's a women only one and I hope that doesn't mean it's for lesbo's!  Ah well, it's right in the town centre and has free laundry facilities.

Off to Sydney on Friday.  Really looking forward to catching up with Nadia - it will be nice to be with someone who knows me.

Hope everyone is doing good back home and not missing me too much.  I've only been gone for 2 weeks but it feels longer.  I'm loving travelling so much and have fallen in love with NZ more than I expected.  Let's hope Oz will be just as fab.