MATT: After a bit of a trip into Oamaru town centre, where I very slightly crash the van into a parking meter (thank god for full insurance cover) we are heading straight up the coast, in the sunshine, to Christchurch. We get there late in the afternoon as the shops are starting to shut and the streets empty of the Saturday shopping crowds. We park up in the town and go for a wander - to the cathedral, have a look at the River Avon (apparently named after the Avon in Scotland - and not as commonly thought the Avon in England) and head to the "Arts Centre" where Kel buys a ring from a nice guy who confuses the crap out of us by trying to give us directions to the nearest florist...he may well be quite stoned.

The reason for the florist is that we are going for dinner at Pip & Peter's house, who we met while travelling round Indochina. So we bring them some flowers and one of our nice Central Otago wines. They make a delicious meal of green lipped mussels, roast NZ lamb and kumara and Kiwi pavlova. It is a very welcome home cooked meal. We have a great time at their house with the company of their daughter and son in law - who happen to own a London black cab and take us out for a tour of the city and an after dinner cup of coffee.

The next day (Sunday) we meet Pip & Peter again, and they borrow a couple of bikes on our behalf and take us off for a bit of mountain biking through a local pine forest...lots of fun. After a beer and a chill at their house after we say our farewells and head off into town to try and get tickets to a "Kings of Leon" concert that our guide (Neil) on the Milford Trek told us about. We have being trying to get tickets with no success for the last 10 days or so, but figure the touts will be able to sort us out outside the stadium. This is where NZ's pure side shows itself...they do not have ticket touts, the locals looked at us like we were crazy...and from the reviews, we missed a damn good show...

We kind of made up for it though, by going to Sol Square, having fish and chips and getting drunk...rock 'n' roll.....