My First stop in New Zealand was in Christchurch. Upon arrival the first thing that I noticed was the roads in the taxi, as I journeyed from the airport to the hostel. Every road is perfectly flat and straight, corners don't exist and the majority of the cars are from around the 1990's.

The hostel is really clean and comfortable, and everyone I met is very friendly. I got on great with my roommates and the others in the hostel, and about 4 hours after arriving I found myself having a few drinks and playing poker with about 7 or 8 others.

The next day I just took it easy and got to know the area, and watched a few movies before doing a bit of a pub crawl around the city that night.

The next day I went to the Christchurch Cathedral and rang the bells before the mass that morning. A group of us then got together that evening and did some shopping and made a home cooked meal, which made a change from eating chips every day. I then booked myself on a tour to Akaroa to swim with the dolphins.

Akaroa was about a 2.30h bus journey away, which was time to sit back relax and enjoy the landscapes, it's just so beautiful to see untouched land, nothing looks out of place.

I finally arrived at the harbor. We then motored out into the Pacific Ocean to see the dolphins, on the way we also saw some penguins but they were too quick for me and my camera. The dolphins started jumping in front of the boat, so we stopped and got out into the water. There was a time when there was about 7 or 8 dolphins swimming around us, it was just amazing.

The skipper gave me 2 stones to click together to attract the dolphins and 2 of them started doing circles around me. It was an unbelievable experience.

Came back in and just laid out in the sun (I have hardly seen a cloud in the sky since I arrived).

Tomorrow I'm moving down the coast of the bottom Island to Oamaru so I'll try and keep all informed. Bye for now.