Hi!

It is my last full day in New Zealand today. Be warned tomorrow, I am coming home!

. . . No, not really I am off to LA. It is going to be such a strange one. I leave here tomorrow for domestic flight to Auckland, hang around the airport for ages and then off to LA at about 7.30pm tomorrow night (Wednesday evening)?then I have a 12 hour flight but end up in LA seven hours earlier then I left so Wednesday lunch time. Dad pointed out about the bday thing,?I wish it was my birthday then I would get two!

Anyway yesterday, I did Kaikoura and we found lots of albatross. There are 30+ species and about 12 of them were stalking our boat. They have the biggest wing span in the world and it does look pretty amazing when they fly and I tried to take pics but just was not quick enough and gots lots of pics of empty?blue sky instead. You would normally only find albatross really far out at sea but in Kaikoura, they are really near the harbour. We just sailed along the shore (the water was very choppy!). However in Kaikoura, there is a deep ocean trench?(like the?grand canyon) under the sea and there is lots of food there hence the albatross. Apparently, they live until 60 although scientists suspect many live to be 100. They have very beady eyes!

Saw more dolphins.? In Kaikoura and Aratoa, they?are not as shy as in Auckland and they just come up to you.?Mind you, dunno if this is good or not.? What if our boat was a fishing trawler with dangerous hooks and nets?! Saw lots of seals too. The skipper said he used to see 300-400 sharks in the summer. This year, he has seen only 2 and don't forget, it is well into autumn here now.

It is a gorgeous day here today. If it was not for all the orange leaves on the floor (which means the trees must be imported cos NZ trees don't drop leaves), I would think it was spring. I wonder what it'll be like in LA. It'll be strange. There are only 4 million people in NZ and 9mil just in LA so I reckon it is gonna be a bit different. Guess time will tell. . .!

Hope you all ok.

Sam xxx

Ps Gonna get myslef in trouble for saying Christchurch is small. Apparently you can fit Plymouth in to Christchurch seven times. I guess, it just feels small. The centre is small relative to Bristol, London etc and the houses are very spread out. It is a different type of city, I guess. There is not a lot of people so housing areas is widely dispersed leaving lots of green which i thought was the city borders. The park here is the largest in the world apart from Central Park and Hyde Park.