After a few days on our own it was back to meeting up with friends and family again. This time - Bec and Stu's house in Christchurch. Thanks guys for such a lovely catch up. We really savoured the last shower and proper bed in a while as we soon traded all that luxury in for a camper. Now most people probably shop around for a while, get the best deal and don't end up with an embarrassing heap of junk. Well for some reason we are incapable of organising anything in advance and were left with the only van available in the whole of New Zealand - one of the 'Wicked' branded campers that are loathed by travellers the world over. It actually turned out to be not that bad as it does give you absolute freedom to pick some awesome places to just park up and camp out in 'Blue Tattoo' as it was called but it had its 'not so' Wicked moments as well - stories to follow...

Before we set off on our NZ camper trip, we did the touristy stuff in Christchurch - a place which has modelled itself on the UK's Cambridge except they made a few errors back in the day by naming the region as Canterbury and the river as the Avon. We took a tram ride, were punted along the river, wandered around the stunning Botanical Gardens and went up the gondala to see views over to Lyttleton. Tick. We then spent an evening with my mum's second cousin Elaine and her husband Terence - such an amazing pair with so many stories. Another thank you!

Right then, we were off, waving to other 'Wicked' buddies along the way and essentially joining the hoardes of campers on NZ's roads. First pit stop was the Banks Peninsula and the French town of Akaroa - the place where the French landed hoping to claim NZ as theirs only to have the Brits stick their flag up 2 days before. Ha ha. We signed up for a dolphin spotting boat trip lured by the sales blurb quoting a '98% chance of success' spotting the little Flippers. Yep you guessed it - we fell into the 2% bracket. Oh well. Saw some seals and cool caves instead and managed to get a free shower in from all the sea spray.

The next day was Waitangi Day - the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty between the Maoris and the Crown and it was such good timing to be over that way as it just happened to be one of the places where the Treaty was originally signed. Cue uber culture intake with us partaking in the local celebrations in Okains Bay! We witnessed this really formal ceremony between the two sides and feasted on meat and potatoes as part of a 'Hangi' - essentially the Maoris dig a massive hole in the ground, lay down some hot coals, cover the coals with chicken, beef, lamb and veg before covering the food with soil and leaving it to roast for hours. I thought I had misheard when they said "the food will be coming out of the ground in an hour" (they do have funny accents after all) but no I was not mistaken. Hmmm tasty.