Spent my morning in Wanaka trying to book things in Christchurch and Kaikoura. I have booked a whale tour at 7:15am on Tuesday, but still can't get through to the Maori tour people! So have tentatively booked my seal tour for that afternoon as I don't want to miss my place and then not have anything to do in Kaikoura!
Had one last look at the lake before I left too (and got a refund for the internet time that I lost. Apparently it happens on their terminals quite often....why they don't warn people is another matter) but the weather was really grey and cloudy this morning so I didn't get that nice a last glance. However, it was nice to see the lake as I wasn't looking forward to 6 - 7 hours on the bus!
The bus pulled up and it was tiny! I'm used to these huge InterCity or Newmans coaches and this little bus pulls up that is full to the brim of people!
I had a wander through the seats and sat down next to someones books - a Bill Bryson and Charles Dickens Great Expectations. I thought that this person can't be too bad if they're reading those! Luckily it was a nice guy called Nick from Seattle, so that was cool. He's a lawyer and used to work on a large wind farm project, but is now going to start a new job being the manager of a small bank.
I was mostly asleep on the bus to Christchurch, which won't surprise you by now! Not much else to do on the bus really, especially when you're on it for so long.

The weather got gradually worse as we drove to Christchurch too. It started off just drizzle, but then became proper rain. By the time we got dropped off, it wasn't raining too heavily, but I just bailed and got a taxi to the hostel. Good thing, as it was a good 10 minute walk, but it would have taken me twice as long with all my luggage! I'm so glad I'm not a poor student backpacking around NZ and can afford a taxi!! :D
Vagabond Backpackers is where I'm staying and it's really nice. Quite small, which is good, and they even have a cat. The cat doesn't actually live there, she lives a few doors down, but obviously just prefers it at the hostel!

I did fancy going for a walk in the evening, as my legs had forgotten what they were meant to be for, but basically the heavens opened and it poured and poured. It stopped for about half an hour, but was still really windy, and then it basically just rained all night! I'm not very hopeful for my dolphin swimming cruise tomorrow, I can tell you, and am just hoping that it rains itself out tonight and the weather is good for tomorrow. I guess I'll have to ring the cruise people in the morning to find out what's happening, and then if it gets called off I'll have to find something to do with myself in Christchurch.
There is an art gallery, and a museum that I can shelter in if the weather is rubbish, so those are options. I could also just stay indoors and shelter from the rain!! A telly and an abundance of video's and dvd's means that I won't be short of anything to watch!! Telly isn't anywhere near as big as other ones I've seen, but never mind, it's still a telly, eh?