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Hey all!
We've made it to Christchurch, where it's actually sunny! But I'll start from the beginning
The Milford Sound trip was okay...it wasn't as spectacular as I thought it would be, and it was a LOT of driving to get there!! The underwater observatory was quite cool though--due to the geography of the area, quite shallow areas act like deep waters, so there were loads of unique fishes and corals that you can usually only see at 40m under the ocean.
The next day (our spare day in Queenstown) we had a very very nice lie in, and because it was sunny (yay!) we wandered around a bit, and found a mini gold course. I won :) After that we decided to go luging again; it was really fun, not as good as in rotorua, but still really good and amazing views of the Remarkables (a mountain range, Mordor in Lord of the Rings). So we have now been to half of the luging places in the world--there are 2 in NZ, one in Singapore, and one in Canada. So not bad! We have some good pictures of us luging but I don't have very much time here--I'm really bad at getting the pictures, maybe I'll be more set up in Australia.
So after a terrible day driving up to Christchurch (lots of sleeping), Christchurch has actually been really nice, and sunny! Yesterday we finally got to see a kiwi bird live, although it was also quite hard to see as it was dark (they're nocturnal). But it was really cute! Look them up if you have time...This was along with an aquarium, which was really cool as well. I've discovered that octopuses are actually really scary (I haven't decided if they're scarier than Snow White's Scary Adventures ride in Disneyland, which was also surprisingly scary). I'm rather put off of scuba diving in a week's time now....Anyway, we had quite good timing as well as we got to see the feeding of the main marine tank, the small sharks (carpet sharks etc) and stingrays and all that. Stingrays are quite weird looking actually, they have smiley faces on the bottom...?? But it was quite fun, and strange knowing we had kayaked over (and seen) stingrays when we went kayaking in nelson....
Today was sunny again, so we walked over to the botanical gardens which were really big! The rose garden was probably the best bit...or the ducks. Christchurch is quite like Cambridge, they do punting and everything. I got quite a few rather boring but pretty pictures and videos of the area though.
Only have a few minutes now so I'll cut it short--the highlights of Disneyland and New Zealand!! (we leave for Australia tomorrow...the flight's at 6 30am, and I thought we had to be there 3 hours early so the shuttle is picking us up at 2 50am; it turns out we have to be there only 2 hours early so uh oh. And apparently the airport closes, and we need to pay a departure tax somewhere down the line...so a bit of crazy panicking tomorrow)
--This amazing ice cream we have found here in Christchurch, massive oreo cookie pieces, fudge swirls, all in cookies n cream ice cream...its our 2nd litre tonight!!
--Fresh-up; apple&orange juice that sounds weird but actually really nice and wakes me up
--Fergburger. Massive burgers (the size of my head, literally), and so so so yummy. Only in Queenstown though
--Sandboarding in Cape Reinga
--Getting a really nice room in Wanaka (it's been desperate pickings sometimes)
--New World. An amazing supermarket. Bought dinner there tonight actually, great fresh food.
--Kayaking in Nelson (not the sandflies bit, still have the bites and scabs..) and seeing the seal colony and the stingrays and startfish and sandollars
--Catching up with Nic in Nelson :)
--Getting beaten up by a glacier hike in Franz Josef (my knuckles are still all scabby from whacking the ice with my fist whilst trying to use a pick axe, and my knee is still bruised from falling into a rock. And I also fell into the meltwater stream at the end and got soaked. Woo!
--Crazy horse trekking in River Valley...the horses were a bit over excited at times, and just ate the rest of the time...
--Jet boating at Westport, despite gettting very very wet
--The pretty Mirror lakes (reflecting the mountain range) on our way to Milford Sound
--The cruise ship in Paihia, seeing the orcas and dolphins and everything
--Maori evening in Rotorua
--Luging in Rotorua
--Schweeb in Rotorua
--Black Water Rafting in Waitomo
--Te Papa museum in Wellington, and Wellington in general
--Seeing a Kiwi Bird, the aquarium, and the interesting videos they played there (although I can't remember any of them... :( )
And of course Disneyland--the Indiana Jones ride, POTC, Grizzly River Rapids, Thunder Mountain, and the Matterhorn!
Well that went on for quite a bit, I'll really miss New Zealand, but now onto Oz!
Cristina
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