Drive up to Christchurch was lovely, going through mostly farmland, but very often with a roaring sea just off to the right. And thankfully, no rain!!

Took about an hour to get to Moeraki to go see the boulders. My only mistake really was parking in the official car park, should have parked up by the cafe, it's a much shorter walk. Never mind, trudged up the beach for about 10 mins, only to realise I had timed my visit to coincide with a bunch of students on a geography field visit - cue silly screaming, climbing on boulders and foolish antics to impress members of the opposite sex!!

Aside from that, the boulders are absolutely weird. No one really knows for certain how they are formed, but these spherical rocks keep just appearing from the cliff face as it gets eroded and then seem to slowly march out to sea. Science can explain what they are made of, but no one seems to be able to fathom why they are spherical, and pretty perfectly so, or why they seem to exist only in this tiny patch in NZ. Even more bizzarrely, occasionally one breaks and the inside is full of yellow crystals. They come in a variety of sizes, but unfortunately I didn't get to explore them too much as I had caught the tide turning and it was coming in, making it difficult to really get close to many of the boulders and threatening to cut me off from the car park!!

Definitely a interesting pit stop and it broke up the drive to Christchurch, which actually wasn't as bad as I'd feared. I'd been told 5 to 6 hours, but even with a lunch stop at a lovely little cafe for a fab homemade scone (just as a side note, they really do make the best scones here in NZ, they seem to be something of a staple in cafes and the like and definitely worth it) but still managed to get to my hotel by just after 3pm.

Booked into another of the Williams group hotels and at first glance was a tad disappointed. The location seemed more than a little weird, right on the edge of an industrial estate and the hotel was more than a little reminiscent of some cheap motel, but actually it's pretty good. They have refurbed, but unfortunately stopped at the bedroom, so the bathroom could still do with a little work!! It is an ex motel, so although I have a balcony, as such, it's actually the walkway and the whole front of my room is glass, which would be lovely, except my view is a coach depot!

Also discovered the hotel doesn't have a restaurant, which was a little alarming, as I imagined I was kind of in a not great area, but actually discovered that the hotel is just off one of the main artery roads into the city centre and a couple of blocks from a Westfield shopping mall, so just at the end of the road are plenty of eating & drinking options, and the city centre is a 5 min bus ride or, I guess, a brisk 20 min walk. Had dinner at the place recommended by the receptionist and back to have a quiet night, as I was a bit wiped from the driving.

Lazy start today, as I didn't really have too much sightseeing planned for Christchurch, just mostly a wander around the city centre and to try and see a Kiwi, as it would be my last chance. (Yes, I had had opportunities before, but just never seemed to get around to it!) Good job really, as I don't think I had appreciated how much of Christchurch is still blocked off.

Yes, I knew that there had been masses of damage from the earthquake, but I rather thought, that over a year on they would be a little further ahead in the repairs and rebuilding. I mean, you hear about Japan, where they rebuilt a motorway in about 6 weeks flat, so I thought that there would be more done. Unfortunately, pretty much the whole of the city centre is barricaded off, you just can't get in there - unless of course you are a construction worker. So, my plans to just wander around the centre and the parks and gardens in the sunshine for 2 days were blown out of the water. One dire issue was that the birdlife place I had pinned my Kiwi hopes on, was right in the centre, so obviously shut. Therefore I marched myself up to the relocated tourist info portacabin and discovered a Wildlife reserve out in one of the suburbs, where I was guaranteed to see a Kiwi.

Hopped in the car and drove out for what turned out to be a worthwhile trip, and not just because I finally saw a Kiwi!!!! It's a fairly sizeable reserve with lots of other stuff, with this long winding walkway that takes you around all sorts of wildlife, native and imported, including a farmyard, which I guess is great for the kids, but had in it a pair of the ugliest looking pigs I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, Ugly. Also had a very distressed ostrich, which follows you along the fence and does this very weird dance thing - I'm guessing it's very bored and very lonely and just a little scary!

Then, finally, the moment I had been working up to...the Kiwi. Now, you may not know this (and I admit I didn't until I got here) but the Kiwi is a nocturnal animal and on the endangered list, so your chances of seeing one in the wild are negligible to "not going to happen", so the only place to see them is in a zoo or sanctuary or wildlife place. This place was set up to be twilight, so you had to be patient, as even though it was dark, they may still be sleeping. I was lucky, I was hunting frantically around for one and I heard it before I saw it. In the whole Kiwi house, which had about 5 large pens, only one was active, and he was grubbing around right by the fence, right by me. They are larger than I thought and definitely strange looking; it's a bit like someone has taken a ball, stuck some feathers on it, then a long thin curved beak and some skinny legs. It doesn't quite looked balanced somehow, but it was definitely worth the wait. Unfortunately, as they are endangered and because this was a nocturnal house, I couldn't take any photos - though they probably wouldn't have come out very well.

Was a great way to fill the afternoon and got back to the hotel to update my blog and catch up on my picture uploading, as finally have free, unlimited wifi; everywhere else has charged by the minute or the megabyte, which has made uploading the photos a little difficult.

Have no real plans for tomorrow, aside from some re packing of bags prior to the marathon travelling day that is Saturday; I leave Christchurch Saturday afternoon and fly to LA, via Auckland and arrive in LA on Saturday morning (so before I left Christchurch, in fact probably before I even wake up in Christchurch!) and then onto to Tampa to arrive on Sunday morning. I think I will be spending about 48 hours in transit, but my brain freezes when I try and actually work it out - I think it's enjoying being on holiday too much and just simply puts it on the "too difficult and not essential" pile!

About the only other thing I want to do tomorrow is finally get an NZ picture. Given the spectacular scenery around here you would think that there are artists a plenty and the souveneir shops would be full of pictures, but alas. Tourist stuff here tends to concentrate on jewelry and carving and any half decent pictures I've seen tend to run into the hundreds or thousands of $'s or else just be prints and I haven't even seen too many of them that I like either. But, today I did see one which might do. So may have to go back tomorrow and see if I still like it.