Not too bad a start this morning, we set off at 10am. Much better than all these 7am starts.

We had a nice stop off at Lake Tekapo to see the Church of the Good Shepherd. It's a really small church set right next to the lovely blue lake. Looks really nice. Other than that, we pretty much just pressed on for Christchurch.

We arrived at Base backpackers at around 3pm, and waiting for us outside was...Paolo! That's it, the family is complete. We've reunited for a couple of days! Haha. We managed to all get in the same 8-bed dorm too. Plus me and Therese got a double-bed...still has a bunk above though!

Paolo has been here a couple of days, so took us on a little tour down to the river. It's really nice down there with lots of bars and we stopped in a place called Coyote bar for happy hour.

We tried for ages to find some cheap food, but eventually had enough looking so went back to the first place we saw called Dimitri's for a nice chicken souvlaki (pita kebab). Was really nice, but massive. I was so stuffed and it only cost $12 (£6).

In the evening we sat in the Saints and Sinners bar at Base for a few cheap drinks. We were sat chatting, when I took a double-take at a lad that walked past. I really thought I recognised him so went up to the bar. It only turned out to be a lad I went to middle school with called Damian Sharp! I've come to the other side of the world and bumped into him in a little bar in Christchurch. It's the first time I've seen him for at least 8 years. He's been living in Wellington since sometime last year, then just decided to venture down here and on to Queenstown.

So anyway, we went onto a few more pubs like Bard on Avon and The Bog but they were really expensive - £7.50 (£3.75) a pint. Then we went on to SOL Square which is a cool little back-alley area with lots of small independent funky bars. We met Damien in one place and had a drink or two in there with him. Had a good laugh in there, and we all got more and more Yorkshire as the night went on!

Had a great night and it was about 1am by the time we got in.