Christchurch

Kate & I got back onto the Stray Bus with Fido, our driver (don't they have 'normal' names?!) and headed north to Christchurch.

We were due to pass by Mount Cook and were very excited about it until we realised that the weather was not on our side and all we saw were clouds! We stopped at Lake Tekapo for lunch. In the nearby fields were lots of Mountain Lupins in all colours of pink and purple and Kate spent ages trying to get the perfect shot of them - I ended up getting a picture of her lying in them trying to get her shot!!

From here, we travelled across the Canterbury Plains through to Christchurch. Fido decided to make an impromptu stop at the Cookie Time factory and we all piled out into the shop to stock up! They were yummy!!!

We checked into Base Backpackers, shattered from our trip, but decided to catch up with our friends Helen & Ben from home (who were holidaying in the South Island) and went out for dinner.

The next day we explored the city. The World Buskers Convention was taking place while we were there and we spent ages watching the various acts which included a man who climbed up a lamppost and pretended to be a flag and some mime artists.

We then decided to jump on the tram and do the city tour (which only covered about 2 streets of the city!) We went past the museum and across the River Avon, where we saw punts going along - it was all very English! We also took a walk through the Botanical Gardens and their rose garden, saw the main Cathedral and their art piece that had been designed for the Millennium.

In the afternoon, we caught the bus to the bottom of the gondola and took the cable car to the top of it (with Ben worrying the whole journey that the cable was going to break and that we were going to fall!!) The view at the top was great but the weather was against us yet again and, to begin with, all we saw was cloud! It cleared a bit and we got to see the city.

They also had an exhibition ride about the history of New Zealand which we went on. We discovered that Ben is also very jumpy in the dark!

The next day, we picked up our hire car (which had to seat 4 people and carry 4 backpacks and 4 day bags). We expected the car to be a medium sized car (it looked like it in the photos!) but we ended up with a small car and we had to cram ourselves into, surrounded by the luggage that didn't fit into the boot!!

We drove to the nearby Antarctic Centre, which told of Scott's fatal trip there and we got to experience a blizzard and Ben went on the ice slide! We also got to see some penguins up close that had been rescued and were being cared for at the centre.

We then left for our road trip!