For some reason we are actually 13 hrs different to you guys now, we can't really understand how...anyway it's a long way! Flew into Christchurch in the South Island of NZ on Fri...slightly traumatic as despite being super organised we nearly missed our flight. Thank god we were 3 hrs early coz they changed our time from 11.15 to 9.15...we literally raced through the airport and got straight on the plane.

Anyway apart from that NZ has been gorgeous, but freezing! (about 9 degrees when we arrived even though it was the first day of summer). We had a walk around Christchurch Cathedral yesterday, very pretty with the xmas tree, then went punting down the river Avon! How random is that, v nice though. Sarah and I had a massive tandoori banquet, which has to be the best meal I have had since coming away and ludicrously cheap after Australia.

We had to go shopping for winter clothes (note the word 'had') as I had one fleece and a pair of linen trousers as my total warm clothing! Thankfully after a pair of jeans and a couple of jumpers it's ok, but still pretty cold.

I managed to put some pics on last night so make sure you all look at them! Not that many,but they still took me 2 hrs to do! Today we picked up our rental car...a very lovely white toyota corolla...and annoyed the guy by saying we can't drive an automatic, luckily now have a manual. We've just arrived in Oamaru, and watched Lord of the Rings (for sarahs benefit) and now going to do the only thing that there is to do here...watch a colony of penguins come into their shelters for the night from the sea! I am actually v excited.

Anyway that's about it for NZ so far...very cold, lots of sheep, very slow drivers and not much else so far...but we are looking forward to getting up some of the spectacular mountains and seeing some of the wildlife...just pray it warms up a bit! xxx