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WHERE VIV'S AT...
So, New Zealand!!
Well I spent the first couple of days in Christchurch, not much there to see but it's very pretty, oh and it has a great square by the cathedral where you get entertained by music and magacians etc. Anyway, I met up with Jerene (who I first met in WA if you remember that far back) and we organised our transport for the next couple of weeks and we got what we wanted - a Spaceship. Well this is like a little orange toyota bus thingy but it's been adapated and the back pulls out and has a tent attached for sleeping in - we have a little gas stove, a DVD player (with a proper tv screen and free DVDs of our choice as we go round which we can swap with other spacemen - that's what they call spaceship drivers), a chilli bin, a fridge and a map of the South Island. I tell you what, the car is supercool.
So all excited, we picked up Jabba on Friday morning (there are about 120 spaceships and each one is named after a Starwars character and ours is called Jabba) and we drove in search of dolphins to a town called Kiakoura up the West Coast and, we drove in driving rain, howling wind and freezing tempratures only to reach there to find the dolphins had been cancelled (bad weather you see). So we sat and froze in Jabba, drunk red wine, watched Bridget Jones movie then slept while Jabba rocked in the wind.
Next day we got up early, weather was a little better (but only just) and we decided we needed warming up so we headed off through the mountains (which were topped with snow and we were told this was too early for snow) to Hanmer Springs. This is a lovely little town in the middle of the mountains which is famous for hot springs (surprise, surprise!!). And we warmed up in hot sulphur pools and the sun came out and at last we were happier. After a couple of hours of making ourselves look like 85 year olds we strolled around the town and in this tiny little place, I bumped into Meika (Maria) do you remember her - from Thailand and my first couple of days in Bangkok?? Well Meika was working there and so we had a good old chat and then said goodbye until next time. It's so odd when travelling that you meet people again in the most unlikely places when you're least expecting it, but it's nice all the same.
Well today, we've drvien through sometotally stunning scenery to the Banks Peninsula which is west of Christchurch and we're staying at this lovely little French inspired town called Akaora and aparaently the dolphins here are allowed out to play tomorrow so Jerene is taking a boat out to the freezing cold sea and going swimming with them (madness - it's cold enough on land) whilst I will be doing a 15K hike in the hills (where it will still be cold but a lot warmer than the sea).
I've taken lots of photos so far (mainly of mountains and Jabba) and as soon as I find an Internet cafe which allows me to download I'll get them up for you all to have a laugh at (I know that's what you do...).
So it's by for now as time is running out on this computer - but I don't want to leave this room - it's warm in here!!!
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