Well we just keep on going, it seems like yesterday we were half way up Australia but now we are at our half way point, the furthest away from home we will get, the land of many sheep............New Zealand! And its fantastic! Honestly the moment I stepped foot out of Christchurch airport I knew I would love this country! The sun was out, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the humidity is non-existent and the breeze is fresh as a daisy coming off the cool Antartican waters! Gorgeous!

Cruising down the streets of Christchurch to our new abode the archirtecture is so similar to England, none of this wooden building rubbish like in Aussie, proper brick buildings, nice work NZ! The place we had booked into was called the Jailhouse and is one of the best hostels I have stayed in so far. As the name would suggest the hostel is a converted jail which stopped running in 1999, the hostel has only been open for four months so everything is brand new and the beds are lush, duvets and everything, seriously it may sound like a small factor but these beds were delicious! All of the prisons original features are all still there you're given an inmate number and sent off to your room which are of course the old cells although slightly more luxurious! They have kept some of the original rooms including one where the inmate drew loads of cool artwork on the walls and they still have the soletary confinement area which is eery just sitting in. The jailhouse rules!

Anyway Christchurch itself is pretty cool too, we took a couple of days to stroll around the city, many people compare it to Oxforsd and you can see why, it has the river Avon which runs past Oxford Terrace and Cambridge Terrace and you can hire punts out and canoes just like in Stratford. There are parks everywhere and the central cathedral looks very English as does the rest of the architecture.

Whilst staying in Christchurch we did somthing that was definately on my 'to do' list before setting off on this travelling escapade and that is to swim with dolphins! We took a bus to Akaroa (about 2 hours from Christchurch) which is a lovely little seaside town with a largeish harbour, (Mum and Dad you would love this place, seriously, you'd love it!) then we donned our thick wetsuits (extremely cold water) and jumped on the boat; after about twenty minutes of cruising the skipper found us our group of dolphins. These aren't any ordinary dolphins though, they are called 'Hector's' dolphins and are the most endangered dolphins in the world and the smallest dolphins in the world, and we got to swim with them! We jumped in and almost imediatley the dolphins come and have a play with you swimming right up close and personal, looking at you in the eye and circling around you, you could have touched them if you were allowed to. We spent about an hour in the water playing with these dolpins and we all absolutely loved it! What an experience!

After enjoying Christchurch's hospitality we began our 'Kiwi experience' adventure (this is the bus pass we have bought to take us around both islands), the first stop is Kaikoura which is where we are now. Its another small peninsula village with a harbour and is the Whale watching capital of New Zealand! Our bus dropped us off at our hostel where there was a small surprise, we only bumped into Hannah and Ella who we travelled a lot with in Australia, how crazy is that, what a nice surprise though! It was good to see them again! This morning at 6.15 it was time for our second New Zealand adventure (seriously we've only been here 5 days!) and this was to go whale watching! It was about a 4 hour boat trip that took us right up close and personal with giant Sperm Whales seriously we were about 5m away from them as they surfaced for air, and then dived down again, witnessing that amazing tail high in the air! Awesome! On the way back we also bumped into a pod of about 400 Dusky dolphins who were somersaulting and jumping all over the place, little rascals! And we saw an Albatross!

We're off to Nelson tomorrow to do a bit of sea kayaking I think, as usual I'll keep you posted. Laters potatas!