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After our crazy time in Queenstown we had a chilled out few days before we moved on to Australia. We hopped on the bus and stopped at Wanaka. Wanaka is a beautiful tourist town by a huge lake, which is the main attraction of the area. We dropped our bags off at the hostel then went for a very long walk as far round as our tummies would allow before they demanded food. It was a sunny day, perfect for a stroll along the beach, the place is absolutely stunning. After lunch we nipped to the supermarket to get some food for a picnic the next day. It was lovely to see that food prices had gone down slightly compared to Queenstown! Then we went to move into our dorm. Our hostel was really nice, it was split into little huts with each hut being a dorm, and each dorm had it's own little kitchen, the first time we haven't had to share one kitchen with the whole hostel! After we'd sorted our stuff out we joined the people in our dorm for a drink outside for the rest of the afternoon. It had gotten really hot by this time and it was really nice to relax and chat to other travellers in the sun. We left Wanaka the next morning and arrived in Tekapo a few hours later. Tekapo is another town with a huge lake, and this one was particularly blue which made it even more beautiful (something to do with glacial deposits in the water). We arrived around lunch time so we dug out the food we bought the day before for a budget picnic feast of bread, very cheap cheese, crisps (first crisps we've had since we've been away = delicious!) and fruit...mmmmm! Katie had wanted strawberries, lemonade and fairy cakes but this was not possible, none of the supermarkets sold fairy cakes would you believe! It was another lovely day so we spent the afternoon listening to music by the lake before heading to our hostel. The room was pretty small but had a veranda facing out over the lake which was nice, we were in a dorm with two guys from France who had just come from Thailand so gave us lots of cool tips. Our bus to Christchurch the next day wasn't til the afternoon so we spent the morning back down at the lake, which would have been nice but unfortunately it had gotten very windy and quite cold so we were glad when it was time to get the bus! In the evening we arrived at our last destination in New Zealand, Christchurch. We stayed here for 2 nights. We knew our way round already from our nights stop over before Queenstown but we decided to stay at a different hostel. The last was nice but too far out of town for us and we really struggled making the journey with our rucksacks last time! Luckily this hostel was the nicest we had stayed in so far. It was also the first hostel we'd stayed in which didn't have bunk beds: result! However, being the nicest hostel also came at a price, it was also our most expensive hostel yet so we had to majorly budget on food. Luckily though there was a free food bin where people put any leftover food when they leave so we got a few goodies! We made ourselves a lovely dinner of pasta with chopped tomatoes, with a free onion and peppers from the food bin, before watching a film together. The next morning we had been hoping to do a hot air balloon ride, which is something we've always wanted to do and we thought that out of everywhere we're going, over Canterbury would be one of the nicest places but unfortunately it was cancelled. Instead we had a lie in and some budget instant noodles from the food bin (which were actually really nice)! We ate outside on the hostel rooftop terrace in the sun, then headed out to see if Christchurch had gotten any more interesting since last time we were there. It was Easter Sunday so we thought there might be a few more things going on if everyone was off work, but it was actually quieter than last time! The only difference was that a group of ballroom dancers were using the outdoor communal dance floor which was quite entertaining. At least the sun was out though. We wandered round but all the shops were closed, however we did find a nice coffee shop where we treated ourselves using up the last of our NZ dollars. This night was our last night in New Zealand! We were really sorry to leave as we've had such an amazing time here! If we hadn't already paid for things in the first week of Australia we would have looked into staying an extra week but I'm sure we'll come back one day as there is so much more we want to see!
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