Today we woke up to the sound of pouring rain on our roof (again!). It showed no sign of stopping so we had to run in to have our showers, then quickly packed up - had to eat our cereal sat in the front seats! We drove into Timaru and visited the library to make use of the free internet. As it was still raining, we decided to go to the pictures as 'The Help' was out that day and we both wanted to see it. After a trip to Pak n Save we parked up at the cinema and ...

This morning we took advantage of the late check-out time at the campsite (1pm!) and slept til 10am! We had been woken up in the night receiving important texts from home regarding two family members who were in hospital, and were greatly relieved to hear everything was ok with both of them :) We decided we'd do our second brewery tour today at DB Brewery just outside Timaru, but we were cutting it fine to get there in time after leaving the site at 11am. Matter...

Today we drove into Christchurch centre, unsure of what we'd find after the earthquake in February. As we got closer to the city centre, we saw lots of building that had either been destroyed in the quake or damaged and demolished since. There was lots of building work going on all around town and traffic was diverted away from Cathedral Square, the centre of town and the epicentre of the quake. The entire area was sealed off with high metal fencing - it looks l...

This morning we woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of the van. We waited until it sounded like it had stopped before running to the showers - it hadn't! We packed up in the rain and ate our breakfast sheltering under the back door of the van which was open. As we were getting ready to go, Laura closed the back door and soaked herself in the water that had collected on top! First stop of the day was the I-Site in Blenheim as we didn't have any South Island...

Today we woke up quite early and had our showers in the rugby club changing rooms! We set off to Lower Hutt centre for a trip to Pak N Save. We also called in at Harvey Norman as we'd seen an advert in the paper for a cheap phone and ours needs replacing as it doesn't charge properly. The one we wanted was sold out - apparently they've been very popular because they're only $44 (22 pounds)! The guy in the shop told us that they still had twenty of them in the Wel...