I'm as far away from home as I can possibly get now!!  I've been here for 3 days and it's very similar to England.  The weather is a lot colder than Oz, but not unbearable.  It's actually spring now so hopefully as I am heading only north from now on, it should get warmer.  Christchurch is very nice but not much to do here.  The day trips are really expensive, I wanted to do a Lord of the Rings tour and just for one day it's $200 which is half of my weekly budget!  I've walked around the Botanic Gardens which are nice and went to the museum. 

The hostel I am staying at is so, so lovely.  The best so far.  It's a 20 minute walk into town but it's so cosy.  It's a house with a kitchen, living room and I'm in a dorm with 3 other girls.  Louise is from Bedfordshire and Laura and Sally are from Cardiff.  Last night we had such a laugh just chatting before going to sleep, reminded me of boarding school.  There are so many nice people staying at our hostel, a couple from Newbury and there's a young lad working there from Oakley in Basingstoke, what a small world!  There's a old guy there who was meant to move over here 47 years ago and at the last minute his wife decided that she didn't want to go and they had sold their house and everything.  He's over here on holiday for 3 months and is going to Nelson to see what it is like as he never made it here before, such a nice man.

Last night me and Louise sat in the kitchen drinking red wine and chatting to other guests.  Then we went into town with Annette from Manchester and Jennie from Guildford.  We went to the Holy Grail (which John Steeden recommended) and it was dead!  We stayed for one beer and went back.  I guess I'll save some cash by not going out much!!

I'm leaving Christchurch at 7am Monday morning to get to Kaikoura.  I will hopefully get some whale watching done there, I've heard it's a really lovely place.  I just wish I could take the hostel I am staying in with me! x x x x