WE SOLD THE CARRRRRRRRR!!!! Yay! We just thought we'd share that happy bit of news with you all. Having given ourselves two weeks, we managed to sell it in 4 days. Not bad going considering the flood of sellers and definite lack of buyers. We made a bit of a loss on what we bought it for, but only a couple of hundred dollars, so at the end of the day, it's been far cheaper than renting the car because we got most of our money back so we're happy.

So, before we arrived in Christchurch we were making our way up from Oamaru to Mount Cook via Twizel. We had been expecting there to be something in Twizel but there was not much there besides a small shopping area and music playing over speakers that made you feel like you were part of Wisteria Lane! Before we made it to Twizel we had driven to a place to find the 'Elephant Rocks' near Duntroon. This was one of the film sites for the Narnia film. They were bizarre limestone rocks, strewn over a farmers field (with a few cows running around) that was a climbers' playground. We didn't see the 'elephants' in the rocks, but it did make a spectacular view across to the mountain range behind it.

After Twizel we pushed on to Mount Cook, making sure to stop at the Easter Weekend 'Driver Reviver' - an excellent little scheme, not only to promote a car insurance company but also give out free hot drinks, fruit, water and to Dave's joy... sausages from the barbie! It definitely mad people stop and it was a perfect excuse to admire the slightly hazy and cloudy Lake Pukaki. The waters are a brilliant blue, not dissimilar to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Arriving at Mount Cook was by that point very cloudy and grey, but we found our way to the DOC office to pay for our night of camping. The temperature drop was very noticable, the layers came out while we were there! Having set up our tent and cooked, we got into the tent as it had started to rain. We presumed it was approaching 9pm, it was in fact 7.30pm! Early bed for us! The next day we got up early to yet more cloud, so much so that we couldn't now even see what we had presumed was part of the peak (yes... we were very wrong!) We went on a 3hr30m walk to one of the glacial lakes, Hooker Lake, which would've given us a fantastic view of the peak had it not been such dull weather! Having returned slightly wet we ventured into the Edmund Hillary Centre, which was a bit expensive for what it was but it was very interesting. There was a video about the man himself and he had commented on much of his life and events that had happened up until he died; it was captivating at times. The centre also included a planetarium with 4 shows, 3 about space and the universe which was excellent. We stayed another night at Mount Cook before getting up late the next morning to brilliant sunshine. It was such a welcome change to the weather we'd been having. As we were leaving Mount Cook/Aoraki came into view, a stunning sight.

After Mount Cook and a visit to Tasman Glacial Lake, we hit the road for Methven for the night. We settled in for the night with a coal/log fire and Lord of the Rings Part 2 (as we'd watched part1 at Hawke's Bay over Christmas). The next day we had arrived in Christchurch for one reason, to sell Angela. After a disappointing trip to the Car Market which we had anticipated being like the huge one in Auckland, it turned out to be about 30 cars/vans all being sold by backpackers. Thankfully we got some interest that night and by 4pm the next day, we'd sold her! :) Since then, we have been walking around Christchurch a lot, spending time lazing in the sun in the Botanical Gardens, by the river, in the Cathedral Square and also planning a route for our Aussie trip. We've found, as a lot of people have said too, is that there's not a lot to do in Christchurch. The Botanic Gardens are great and very peaceful and with the river running through the city it does provide a great escape from cars and concrete. However, we were disappointed to find that the Antarctic Centre costs $55 per person and no one has come back with raving reviews, so we decided not to go in the end. Having been told it was the most English place outside England, we don't really agree. The cathedral square does feel a bit like home, is nice and has a great atmosphere, with markets, stalls, giant chess, the tram, a magician and annoyingly the "I am a teacher and a preacher" man who shouts across the square to everyone. However, outside of the square it feels like you're back under american influence. It's been great in our hostel, The Old CountryHouse, run by an English guy Tom, and his wife; where we've made some good friends and had such a laugh. Some have been there as long as us, but this morning the last few have gone on their way to other parts of NZ/OZ. We're flying back to Auckland tomorrow in prep for our flight to Adelaide on Tuesday 27th. We're excited about it now, hopefully we'll find a cheap car or campervan over there and get around in that. It's also ANZAC day here on sunday, it is the Australian and New Zealand equivilant of Rememberance Sunday so we've already done a bit and bought a poppy each. Hopefully there'll be something happening near the Auckland museum on sunday that we can go to.

So, we are trying to put photos up now as it has been a long time since we've been able to get them up on here. If they don't all get uploaded, those with Facebook can have a look on our group page. We hope you've been having a good few weeks since we last wrote. Happy Birthday to Kate for next week too!

Lots of love, Rachel and David xxxxxxx