Thurs 6th: weather was worse again today so again didnt even see mt cook. We left early and stopped at lake tekapo. We had lunch here and it had actually stopped raining. The cloud was also lifting so we had really nice views across the lake to the snow capped mountains. The lakeis known for its turquiose colour. On the shores of the lake there are two well known features, the collie dog statue, dedicated to the working collie dogs of the mckenzie country and the church of the good shepard. This image of the church over looking the lake is a post card/calendar favourite. We then drove direct to christchurch. Staying at the city oasis motel. Im staying with 2 other stray people. We have a tv and a fridge in our room along with an en-suite. The weather dramatically improved when we got to christchurch and it was 24 degrees. Me and yvonne and two irish guys walked to cathedral square, on the way stopping at manchester street to look at the destruction of the buildings due to the earthquakes over the last few weeks. Some of the buildings reminded me of the those blitzed villages we used to go see in france where they had left everything as it was. There were two bands playing in the square, not sure of the first band,called emyrphology. They were very good and the second band was called black boy peaches, also quite good (company feel good). Then walked through town with yvonne to supermarket and caught the free shuttle bus back to hostel. The city has neo-gothic architecture and sits along the winding avon river which has punts up and down it.so there is a feel of ye olde english towns. The cathedral square is always busy with either locals having a break from work or tourists and each day I was here there was a craft market on. The square is predominately overlooked by the cathedral. There is also a large sculpture, like a chalice which is silver and metallic blue and leaf and fern patterns cut out of it. There wasnt much interest south of cathedral square, except sol square which is a bar area, housing around 10 bars.In the evening just chilled out at hostel and wrote my detailed journal which I now hope is pleasing my mother.

7th: chilled in hostel till 12 and then went and met arita, girl I met in mission beach. She works in strawberry fare, a restaurant renowned for its deserts. She treated me to a beautiful desert (and the rest of hers) and a hot chocolate. We then went into town and went to the botanical gardens and then to cathedral square. The botanical gardens are huge and very nice and have the river avon running through them. We then went to the other small gardens and laid on the grass of one for an hour or so. We then walked through town and came across this shop,called fazazz. It was just full of car related goods; number plates, model cars, posters, signs and it also had some fanciable cars in the shop, mainly a ferrari 368 gts, jag mark 2, e-type, 4 morgan cars, maserarti. Then we walked back as she had to go as she was working. In the evening I had food and chilled out and then met arita at 11:30 and we went into town to have a few drinks. We ended up at an irish bar, mickey finns or something and had a good live band on there. Got back to hostel around 3.

8th: in the morning went and skyped home and had a nice long chat with mam and dad on their new netbook. Was actually nice to see their faces very clearly and here them speak, all at the same time!!! Then met arita and we went for lunch. Then met annabel, girl I met in queenstown. She has the perfect job of working for an adventure company and does, kayaking, canyoning, abseiling etc everyday. We went for a drink down to sol square and caught up for an hour, she then had to go back as she lives outside christchurch in this camp/adventure centre. She promised me a drink and food if I see her in london. went back to hostel had food and then met steve. The american guy I first met in nelson and then along the west coast. Us and yvonne went to sol square for a few drinks and steve and me went to mickey finns for an hr after that. It was a good night but just wasnt up for a drinking night, so when we got to mickey finns it was just a bit to lively for us and went home after an hour.

9th: christchurch to kaikoura. Nice drive through the cantebury plains. Nice rolling hills (like the plains in the USA I guess) and the grass was a very light green / brown /yellow colour. Unfortunately I slept for most of the way till our first splash and dash stop. Got to kaikoura at 12:30 had lunch and went for walk to new wharf, about an hour outside the centre of town. The views looking back across the turquoise ocean with the steep mountains in the background being tickled by the clouds was beautiful. Kaikoura is known for its oceanic mammals and creatures. Offshore is the kaikoura canyon. Its 1000m deep and just a km off shore. It has a network of troughs that funnel warm sub tropical waters and cold antartic waters flow into the nutrient rich upwelling. This means that there is a hugely rich habitat, providing the perfect location for the mammals. You can expect to see sperm whales, dolphins, humpback whales and orca. There is also albatross and wandering albatross over the waters. The town itself is situated right on the beach front, although the beach here is very stoney and you need to walk 15mins to reach the sand, although black. The town has just the one main street and houses all the normal buildings from backpackers, retaurants, bars through to souvenir shops. then yvonne and jim and I went to the beach, slept there for a while then pub for free soup and beer. Across the road the band we saw in christchurch were playing so I went over to see them play a couple of songs. Prepared for tomorrow and then went to the lounge to chat and have food. Went to bed around 10.

monday 10th: so today we needed to meet at the dolphin encounter building at 5:20am. It was a 20min walk from the hostel so we basically got up at 4. there are around 7 people from stray . We got to the building and got fitted out with our fins, snorkels, wetsuits and hood. We then had an introductory video about how the day would pan out etc. there were quite a few people and we to the harbour in two buses and then got split into three boats. The water was calm but there was a big swell and so the boat rocked quite violantly on times. We headed over to the common area of where the dolphins are normally located at that time of the morning. Low and behold we spotted some fins. As we came closer an orca popped out of the water with her calf. Apparently they only sight the orcas around once every 3 to 4 weeks. There were 3 groups of 2 orcas, mainly mother and infant, we followed them for a while and one group came up next to the boat, we actually thought she was going to hit us but she just came up alongside. They then popped up for air every 30secs or so no more than 15m away from us and we vould see them clearly as they went back under and swam under our boat. It was another memorable moment, the boat crew were also going crazy about how cool it was so we were very fortunate. We then went off and searched for dolphins further out to see. On the way out there were a couple of dolphins jumping . We then stopped and jumped in the cold water. We then had to swim around and make as much noise as possible , sounding like complete idiots. We could see the dolphins popping out now and again but didnt sem to come close. And then one came right next to me and swam around me. A little while later 2 more came and then they seemed to dissappear so we got called back to the boat. We then went to another spot and the same thing happened again. The third and final swim there was a much larger pod and so the interaction was a lot better and had a couple more close encounters with them but could see them all swimming around and jumping out of the water. On the this final swim I got pretty sea sick and threw up a couple of times in the ocean. On the way back I wasnt feeling too great but didnt feel sick. and for a couple of minutes the dusky dolphins were swimming alongside us and leaping out of the water. It was a great experience and worthwhile but the highlight was definitely seeing the orcas and this one dolphin that had a little play around me. We then had a few hours drive to picton. The coastline road was again very pretty. Where the road hugged the cliff and the shoreline. This was one of the nicer coastal roads that we had driven on. We caught the 2pm bluebridge ferry over to wellington. I had arranged to stay at ciaras so had a long walk to get there. I knocked the door but there was no answer, I tried a few times again or the next 15mins and then finally she came down and let me in. her and dorothy are sharing a room so I had the living room sofa. But it was fine and they made me some food and we chatted for a while and watched tv.

11th: The next morning everyone had already gone to work so I took advantage and washed all my stuff and used their internet. I then went into town and looked for a barbers and spent most of the afternoon at the travel agents bokking my fiji package. I then went and bought some stuff at the shop for the girls and in the evening they made me food again and I chatted with their flatmates, we watched a film and I played cards with ciara. Fixed some stuff in ciaras.

Wednesday 12th: bus to auckalnd. Caught the bus at 6:45am. Today was a straight drive to auckland . Must be around an 8hr drive. We stopped at a couple of places that we stopped at on the way down, like bulls and ohrianga or somewhere. We got to auckland at 6 and checked into the fat camel. Strange layout but a good one. In the night jim, ivonne, lydia and myself went out. We went to the marina and checked out the outlaws bar, then went up through town to father teds and then to base bar for cheaper drinks. We tried playing drinking games to liven us up a little bit but it just didnt happen and the girls got drunk but we all still felt unenergetic.

Thursday 13th: went to the library and spent the morning on the internet, sorting out accom for LA. Went back to hostel to try and eat as much food as poss and then went back onto the internet in the afternoon and rang meryl. Dont know where the afternoon went but I ended up rushing around to try and get out and meet alex and joy. We went down to the hostel bar and it was rammed as there was a pub crawl starting there. After they left we were the only ones there so we decided to follow the oub crawl around town. We ended up at base but again we just weren't in the mood for heavy drinking and dancing so it was pretty chilled out. But we had a lot to drink and I went home slightly drunk. It was really good to see them and like so many other people ive met, I probably wont see them again. But had 2 really nice nights to finish off my trip of new zealand.