Hello again Sat at my uncle's computer after yet another lovely day in New Zealand. I'm having a lovely time so far in this beautiful country. After I last wrote I continued my journey with Jenni, and had a wonderful time. The following day we made our way to Lake Rotoiti via 'The Pancake Rocks'. These, unsuprisingly, are layers of rock in the sea that look like layers of pancakes. It was a really beautiful spot with a blow hole that created rainbows everytime a wave spouted up through it. Very pretty. We mosied along the coastline and then cut in to Lake Rotoiti and to our second stop in a batch. This was a lovely old place in the middle of the bush with just a few minutes walk to the lake. When I arrived there was a siren roaring, which sounded like an air raid siren, and Jen informed me that it was a call to the volunteer firemen in the area because (rather obviously) there was a fire somewhere that needed attending to. The next day, Jen rather bravely went for a swim in the lake whilst I stood just my feet in the shallows and we then headed to Nelson on the North coast. We visited Jen's very pregnant friend and spent some time on the beach before a little time at the shops. Perfect day! We then got to my auntie and uncle in their batch in Picton by the evening. The following day we all went out on my uncles sailing boat for the day. It was glorious. The sun was shining but there was enough breeze to get the sails up, and we stopped a little sandy cove for a picnic lunch all to ourselves. Bliss! I did manage to have my first swim in New Zealand but it was really quite cold - I'm not sure whether I've been spoilt by Fiji or whether it is actually really quite cold. Maybe I'm just being a wimp! We made our way back to Christchurch the following day (Sunday), along the East coast, where we stopped to see a huge seal colony basking in the sun and splashing about in the rock pools. I could have stayed there all day. This week has been reasonably relaxed. Everyone is back at work so I've been keeping myself amused by shopping every day! Great! Christchurch is much bigger than I anticipated so it's been tired work going from shop to shop, trying on clothes and jewellery! On Wednesday, my auntie took me and Jen to see a local production of the musical 'Hair'. I really enjoyed it, although my simple mind couldn't really make any sense of the story line, and the music was excellent. There was a scene where loads of people came on stage completely naked! Very entertaining! I went to Akaroa yesterday with a view to going on a boat trip. Unfortunately there was too much of a swell to go out so I had lunch with my auntie and her mother instead. Akaroa is a very beautiful harbour with really sweet houses (I wanted to say quaint, old houses but actually no houses are particularly old here). Today was the highlight of the week. I went whale watching! Was so much fun. I organised a day trip and was picked up this morning and taken to Kaikoura on the East coast. An organised whale watching boat took us out and I got to see whales! There was no viewings that took my breath away but we got close enough to see part of the top of a sperm whale and then saw it's tail as it went back below the waves. Quite wonderful. I also saw a few albatrosses and loads of dolphins, which were really wonderful, all whizzing around the boat and up and out of the water. So now I'm back and pretty flaked out. I'm going to get an early night tonight because tomorrow I'm going on a jet boat ride in the morning (one of those really fast ones that goes up the river) and watching the cricket in the afternoon (NZ vs West Indies) with Jen and co. I know nothing about cricket but I figured I could just sit in the sun and get drunk. Yey! Should be a good day! I'll write again soon xxx