New Zealand....

We are in Christchurch! (thanks Rod!)

So - it's actually not as cold as i was expecting. After the weather reports we saw in Sydney of the snow everywhere and people losing power etc i was expecting snow on the ground! But - thankfully - there isn't. I think it snowed on the second day we were here, but apart from that the weather has been really nice. Very English, but more english spring than english winter, plenty of blue skies and dry cold days.

What have we done? Not an awful lot really. We are both in the process of obtaining jobs, Rob actually starts on Tuesday and mine is going a little slower but should be all sorted by the end of next week at the latest.

On the first night at Base Backpackers we headed to the bar to celebrate our arrival. Several beers later we both competed in a Rock-Paper-Scissors World cup, which wound up with me winning! Bonus. It was a bus ticket around the South Island with one of the tour companies, being a bit drunk and thinking it was worth about $200 (70 quid) we weren't that excited and left the bar (drunkenly) for a curry next door (excellent from what i vaguely remember!). But the next day i went in and got the ticket and it's actually worth $755 (250 quid), i NEVER win things, certainly not things actually worth something! A good start! Plus this gives us an excuse to go and get drunk every Tuesday night until we win Rob one! No luck this tuesday, we both made it to the quarter finals and then got knocked out. That was after i was part of a very strange juggling entertainer man's finale which involved the words "hold this mans legs and When i count to three, jump up - then wrap your legs backwards around my waist" - thankfully we didn't take the camera out with us. :)

Since Base we've moved to a smaller backpackers and have been here just over a week doing boring things like eating, sleeping, applying for work, drinking coffee and trying to stay warm. We walked up the cathedral tower (a large amount of small steps) and got a nice view of the city a few days ago - but some bastard stole my memory card and reader. On the card are the photos of that, plus some really nice photos of the sharks in Sydney Aquarium and the snowy mountains as we flew in (bastard, bastard - i'm not quite over this yet). Luckily there wasn't really anything on there that we won't be doing again so it could be worst. Grrrr.

Anyway - today we went for a walk about, ended up in the botanical gardens after walking along the river for a while. If any of you out there have been traveling for a while and miss England, you should definitely come here! It's England but a few years ago! See for yourselves....


River Avon


Look! Spring is on it's way! We found a few confused daffs flowering.


Haha. Rob and i are totally going to 'punt' the river. We are waiting until we purchase a gingham hamper basket to put the food in.






Reason it's called Cathedral Square

Over the next few days we are going to be apartment hunting. And researching all the cool stuff we are going to be doing once we've finished working! Hopefully I'll have some photos up of our new place soon!