Hey everyone

Today we sat on a coach all day.

We were up early as we were getting the bus at 8am for the long journey to Christchurch. We had packed our bags the night before so the moment the kitchen opened at 7:30am we were in there filling ourselves up. We were practically the first people to board the coach so decided to sit at the front again, as we had done on the Milford trip, to give ourselves more room and a nice view out the front window.

And so our long journey began. Estimated arrival time in Christchurch: 5pm, and that's with only a couple of half hour stops. Our ipods and the Blackberry were fully charged and we had our books and some snacks by our side. Correction: Alex had a book, Christina can't read on buses. To keep us entertained we were treated to some films throughout the journey (and sitting at the front we had a great view of the tv). Before lunch we watched Stuck on You (which Christina liked) and after lunch we watched 300 (which Alex liked). Alex also got lots of reading done and Christina also got lots of blog writing done.

We had lunch by a huge lake but unfortunately due to the low cloud we couldn't see Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain, in the distance. The scenery was impressive in the morning as we drove through gorges, round mountains, through snow and alongside lakes, but by the afternoon everything had completely flattened out and all we could see for miles were fields and sheep.

By the time we arrived in Christchurch, we were very figgety, tired, and ready to give our legs a much needed stretch. We were dropped off at our hostel, Stonehurst, and as we had booked online we were treated to a welcome pack complete with a towel, hot chocolate satchets, cookies and more, and the crazily cheap rate of $17 (£6.80!) a night.

We popped out to get some food and made ourselves some dinner and spent the evening relaxing on a sofa, reading. We weren't happy when a man with especially smelly feet joined us in the dorm room. Fortunately he had a shower, after Christina's not-so-discrete "Urgh it stinks of feet in here" remark. Tomorrow: the supermarket, to stock up on supplies... Exciting stuff. Xxx