Today we flew to Queenstown- simples. The views we flew over were stunning and I was wishing i had the skills, time, could be bothered to stick to it etc etc to make a patchwork quilt of the plains. They were regimentally marked out with straight lines but some crops were grown in ovals, circles or even cake like segments within the whole. The colours were great and the patches of homesteads could be beads. I have no pictures because the camera battery was flat ...

We are going to a cabin up in the mountains for 5 days.It's 15k north of queenstown. This is what nz is about. Been here 2 wks seen AucklandWellingtonOhakunePictonChristchurch Now we chill

We just had a moving few seconds. I thought it was a very heavy person running up the stairs, then it carried on vibrating and also there are no stairs, so I just had time to say " that's an aftershock" and it stopped. Wish we could have captured our reactions on film, Unaware-surprise-shock- relief. All in a matter of seconds Imagine our happiness when we got upgraded to a big apartment on the Tuesday 2nd (we decided to stay another night) Imagin...

We are on tour in Christchurch. The walk along the river is lovely and we see a guy struggling to punt- we think we will do that later. we walk throughh town and after brunch find the information centre- we are going to go on the gondola up the mountain. The ticket includes a 2 day tram pass- brill. We are told its best to get the shuttle to the gondola and 10 dollars each will include an interesting commentary on the way. The lady bus driver says not a word u...

Today we travel on the trans coastal express down to Christchurch. The views are amazing but we are so tired we keep dropping off (I mean sleep). We go to stand in the viewing gallery which is basically a carraige with no seats or walls or windows. Just a low rail around it. We cling on for dear life and can hardly breath we are going so fast. The views are amazing as we are going along the shore line and the waves are breaking against the sides of the track. L...