Good-bye Australia, welcome to Middle Earth Christchurch and Canterbury Plains Temperature: 20-25 °C, very windy, burn time: 7 minutes With its population of approx 330,000 people, Christchurch has more Sushi places than San Franscisco, more Indian restaurants than London and probably serves more litres of Guinness than Dublin. So we opted for KFC and a bit of Irish dancing with some folks dressed up as Lord of the Rings characters. Joking aside. Christchurch is a delightful little town that offers anything from punting on the River Avon, watching "Who's Line is it anyways?", a Botanical Garden to hiring bikes to cycle to Brighton Beach, which we did. The sea here is pretty rough with dark brown sand. On Sunday we started our 16-day Great Kiwi Experience tour. The first day took us through the Canterbury Plains which include Lakes Tekapo, Pukaki and Ohau- we can only say: absolutely breathtaking! We even have a room with a stunning view on the lake.