Hi there Here I am in New Zealand and it really is a stunning place! Flew into Christchurch which is a very pretty English town about 10 days ago, it is reminiscent of Stratford upon Avon for those that have been there! After a few days chilling out there I did some wwoofing for a week (about 20 mins from Christchurch) ....no I didn't morph into a barking caniine with four legs but it what is known as "williing workers on Organic farms". Basically for 40 dollars you register and are given a booklet which lists over 700 farms around NZ that participate in this scheme. In return for putting in a max of 5 hours work a day you are given accomodation and all of your meals and you stay with a Kiwi family. I did this for a week and worked on a farm with 7 others, my hosts Paul and Mandy were lovely. This farm grew flowers called Hypericums which are exported to Japan and sell on the local market in Christchurch. It was our job to rise at 7.30 every morning and pick these babies and as the 10 acres of land has been sold the farmers need to get rid of the crops asap so we had to dig up the crops which was prob the hardest task but was a good experience too and I now have rippling muscles and looked a sight in my yellow raincoat and wellies! We were all fed really well on lots of organic veg, all homemade cakes and breads which was lovely but not so good for the waiistline!! After my spell there I booked onto a bus called the Kiwi Experience which takes you round the whole of New Zeland in whatever space of time you have (6 weeks for me). It is full of young, lively people, we all book into the same hostel and do more or less the same activities and I am really enjoying it so far. Have met loads of people since I have been on my own and I'm loving it! Was up at 5.30 am this morning to go swimming with the dolphins which is what Kaikora is famous for. It was amazing, we swam with about 300 wild dolphins , they came so close and I got some really good pics which I will upload soon! There is so much to see and do here and so little time The weather has been really good so I have been topping up the old tan, lets hope it stays that way. I am off on the big green Kiwi bus again in the morning to go to the next town Nelson for some more advenures. Will keep you posted! Ciao for now Love Caroline XX