Day 70 - Thurs 8th Jan - Akaroa Mary had taken the day off work today so that we could do something together before I left. We went to Akaroa for the day which is a couple of hours drive from Christchurch. We had been hoping that I would be able to do swimming with dolphins there, but we arrived about lunch time and they were all fully booked for the afternoon. So instead we booked ourselves of a boat trip along the peninsular. The boat trip was really good, ...

Day 68 - Tues 6th Jan - Christchurch Arrived in Christchurch about midday, had lunch with Rosan and some of the others from the bus, then did a bit of shopping as I needed to get a new mobile phone. The one I had taken with me (which was an old one), had gone from working fine in Brazil, to not working at all in Argentina, to working ok in Auckland, to working ok in NZ but only if it was plugged in at the same time, to split in two pieces and now completely unu...

Day 67 - Mon 5th Jan - Lake Tekapo Only half a day on the bus today from Dunedin to Tekapo and we arrived about 1pm. That was just in time for me to head out on a 2 hour horse ride in the afternoon. I had been researching good riding places in NZ since I arrived (good = suitable for an experienced rider) and the website for this place looked quite good. When I turned up I was told that the whole thing would be walking only and I was with 3 total beginners. Not ...

Day 66 - Dunedin - Sun 4th Jan Managed to set the alarm clock correctly for two days running now and made the bus to leave Queenstown and head to Dunedin. We stopped at Moeraki Boulders on the way through for the obligatory bus break and photo stop. The boulders are some perfectly round natural rocks on the shore of the beach that are believed to have been formed on the sea bed about 60 millon years ago, however there are some maori legends about how the rocks...

Day 65 - Sat 3rd Jan - Milford Sound Managed to set the alarm for the correct time today and actually make it on to the bus! It was quite a long drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound (about 5 hours), and we made a couple of stops along the way, photo stops mainly such as Mirror Lakes. It was a very long windy road through the mountains to get there (aparantly the 'Misty Mountains' for those Lord of the Rings fans amongst you!), and I started to feel a little b...