Well, the family has split once again. Mel and Paolo left this morning to make their way north. We catch them up again anyway in a few days.

We had to check out of Base and move round to YHA because we bought bed vouchers that need using. Once we got that sorted, we met Craig for breakfast at Yellow Rocket. Yeah, we like this bagel place.

There's a few sightseeing things we want to do, so we decided to make a start and got the public bus out to the Gondola. We bought the Gondola and Tram combo for $37 (£18.50).
The views from the station a the top of the gondola were fantastic. At the back there's a few bays with beautiful blue waters and lots of green rolling hills. Then a the front is Christchurch city on flatland, with a huge mountain range in the distance, and the coast out to the right. The views were brilliant but nothing near as good as what the views are like in Queenstown.

We went on this free, unexpected, ride called the Time Tunnel Experience (I think). We sat in this little cart and went through into this dark passage to learn about New Zealand. It started off well telling us about how volcanoes formed the land, but then it all seemed to rush through.
We stopped for a quick coffee in the cafe there, before making our way down to catch the bus back into the centre. The other thing is that the gondola is quite far out of the city centre unlike the Queenstown one.

We decided to have our late lunch in Pita Pit. It's so good, we had to go again. I had a Big Chik N Falla. Absolutely lovely, but I was so stuffed afterwards.
I was struggling to walk so we decided to go for a Tram ride around the centre. It's a real tourist gimmick as it goes around in a really small loop more as a short tour rather than actual transport. It was a nice tour though and we got plenty of info from the driver and the trams are pretty iconic for Christchurch so it had to be done.

We went for a long walk to try find a nice place to have a cheap beer in the sun. We walked to SOL Square and Poplar Lane but everything was way too expensive at $8+ (£4) a pint! So we ended up back at our new local, Coyote, for $4 Heinekens. Can't beat that deal. We sat there for a while actually and had some nice nachos to nibble on. We knew we wouldn't be having tea because we were so full from Pita Pit so just had a small bite.

Me and Therese had to try Kapiti ice cream on the way back to the hostel though. It's a sort of famous New Zealand ice cream - it's alright, not that good though. We had a few things to sort out with photos etc and Craig went off to make some phone calls, so we met back up a few hours later.

We met Craig in Base's Saints and Sinners bar and then on to our second home Coyote. Happy Hour had started again at 10pm, so it was $4 for a bottle of Heineken. Pretty good for a Friday night. We stopped in there for a while again, until the happy hour finished at midnight, then moved on to The Bog to see a band playing called Black Velvet. They were a pretty good band actually playing a few Irish songs plus other stuff and it was really busy in there so there was a good atmosphere. Well, so much for just having a couple. And so much for being full...we made an obligatory stop at McDonalds before making our way back!

Therese made a late night phone call home to her brother - about 2 in the morning! It's hard to get the right time to ring home with the 13 hour time difference.

We made it back to our new dorm room at nearly 3am...I can't deal with this anymore...an old TANtastic man snoring away. I swear to you it's David Dickinson. I had to walk out and come back 5 minutes later because the pig noises were going right through me!