Hey again! I have just finised posting all of my most up to date photos on here. I have to write a brief journal entry to explain what i have been up to! I have come over to New Zealand to be able to apply for my one year working visa for australia. The only way to apply is to travel out of the country so we thought it would be nice to come over to new zealand. We have been here around 7 days and leave for oz again in 3 days! A total of 10 days here and what an experiance so far. They first night we got here, we booked a hotel from the airport at midnight and grabbed a taxi driver who assured us that he know where this hotel was in Christchirch. However, he didnt. And obviously neither did we. We paid him $60 for the privilage of him driving us around for an hour trying to find the place that he made out he knew. He kept saying to us that as we couldnt find anywhere to stay(golf was on and there was nowhere to sleep) then why didnt we just stay at his. Well, the next hotel we stopped at, i had it in my head alreaady to just lie about a vacancy and just get our bags out of the damn taxi and get away from here. I found a lovely motherly receptionist and explained our awful experiance with the taxi driver and pleaded with her that even though the whole hotel was fully booked, to let us stay somwhere. We ended up on the floor in a conference room. She was kind enough to let us do this. We were at least safe here. We got to sleep at 2am and had to be up at 6am as there was a conference due in at 7:30 and they had to clean the room. So, we forced ourselves up at 6am still dressed! We had a quick wash and headed downstairs to a hundred bloody old people. Brits, scots...the whole lot. All there on their bloody bus tours of new zealand. They were staring at me and sarah as though we were aliens. Im not sure why. Maybe we looked worse than we thought. We treated ourselves to a breakfast at 6.30am and then made headway on finding somewhere to sleep that night. We rang so many diffrerent places and managed to find somewhere for the next couple of nights. It was a minging hostel in the roughest place in Christchurch!! There were blatent drug users actually living in the hostle and prostitutes outside at night. It was great! What a culture shock ey! We stayed there for around 3 nights and were told after wondering the streets at night..not to as it really wasnt atall safe! Oh well...maybe we were better off not knowing. We had a few good nights out. Meeting the most random people. A few days passed and both me and sarah were becoming extremely depressed about being in such a grotty hostel and town. It was time to leave. After managing to find a reasonably priced rental car(f***ing golfers had all the accomodation and the rental cars!!) we left Christchurch. Hooray!!!!!!!!!

We drove up to a small town around 200 km north of Christchurch called Kaikoura. When we arrived at 7pm ish, it was raining and it was miserable. But, we gave it the benefit of the doubt. We stayed in the most beautiful apartment with the most beatiful view. It was expensive but we deserved the normality. We cooked ourselves a roast dinner and got some good sleep! We had a dolphin swim at 5.30am on saturday morning! We got up at 4.15am and arrived at the dolphin swim place at 5.15am. It was still dark! We were given friggin wetsuits. For anyone who has worn one of these hideous things before...its bloody horrible. I looked like a friggin telly tubby. Check sarahs website out for embarresing pics of the telly tubby. Et oh!!!!! Ha ha ha! We were then bused to a boat and taken way out into the ocean on the search for Dusky dolphins. They found some and we were told to jump in on top of 200 pod of dusky dolphins!!!! I was completly s***ting my wet suit!! I jumped in and i couldnt breath i was that scared! After talking myself around...i was brave enough to start snorkeling. I looked down underneath me to see loads of dolphins swimming by my feet. This was an out of this world experiance but also sooooo scary. Dolphins are completley harmless but i was scared of the deep water i think. I managed to make the most of the experiance though. It was brilliant. We watched the sunrise from the boat and had around 3 or 4 swims with them and headed back. Treated ourselves to a well earned cooked breakfast and after all of this it was still only 9am!

Yesterday, Sunday, we went Whale watching. This was at 3.30pm. We were put on this really fast speed boat in the search of whales! This was the trip that i was so looking forward to. We had to be patient fot the experts to track them down but then we saw one breathing into the air! We watched and waited for the whale to return to the deep to get the key infamous shot of the tail going up and then heading down into the depths of new zealands turquoise waters. I got the shot i had always dreamt of seeing. We then found a pod of Orcas. (killer whales, free willy) with the most upright fins mum because they were wild and free like all wild animals should be! NOt kept captive for peoples enjoyment in Florida! (had to be said). I got some fab shots of these little beauties too. I was over the moon. We then returned to where we saw the first Sperm Whale as he should have returned to the surface for another breather. And he had. There he was again. This time, i wanted to capture the tail image on film on my camera and i did. I got it perfect as you can see for the people i have email it to. It was so amazing. It was like a dream come true. I woke up this morning still with disbelief that i had actually seen these great animals. What a weekend!

This weekend has certainly been the highlight of my trip so far. In fact, probabaly up there with being the highlight of my life to date! Mum, we are gonna do this together at some point. You will be speachless. This little town is the most beatiful place i have ever seen in my life too. As you can see by the pics! Everywhere you turn it is amazing. Even the pictures do no way capture it. It has been 30 degrees today which is bliss! We are heading back to Brisbane on the 1st March on working visas so i can start working and save enough to travel home in May to see my friends and family and also my new nephew!!

I have to dash...i havent eaten since breakfast and its almost 6pm. I just had to tell you all of my wonderful expeiance out here. More to come im sure.

Love to you all. Miss you all like crazy. Kings, if you are reading this, sorry for the public announcement but....could you please email me? I would love to hear from you. if not, could someone please pass on that message to Kings for me. Thankyou. Love you all. xxxxxxxxxxxx