Leaving behind our luxury hotel accommodation at 5:30 on Tuesday morning, it was hard to believe we were really about to leave the country. I think the early start has actually helped us adjust to the time difference, although Australia is only 2 hours behind. This was the first time that I didn't feel nervous at take off, perhaps that was because I was so tired haha. Though we left late, we arrived early - despite loads of turbulence coming over the beautiful, snowy mountain ranges along the middle of the South Island of New Zealand.

Getting out of the airport all happened quickly. We didn't really have queues at any stage, which was fantastic. They were filming for Border Security NZ when we came through customs, after which we were through the gates, out the front door and straight on to a bus - though we weren't exactly sure where we were meant to be going. I have all the maps of New Zealand loaded on to my phone - we haven't needed to use it much but it's comforting to know it's there.

When we got into Christchurch city centre we strolled around with a minimal idea of where we were headed - base Christchurch (we booked all of the trip in advance because it's the first time we've done it). The lady at the check-in desk reminded me of the the actress Emma Thompson, but John tells me I'm crazy. Having climbed the 3 flights of stairs up to our room we realised we had no idea which room we were in so I sent J to find out.

After a bit of a rest we went to explore the city and find lunch - ended up being terribly difficult just to find a bakery! That was nothing compared to the search for a supermarket though, throughout the city there are heaps of convenience stores but we had to ask a local where the reasonably priced places are - leading us to a "Pak'n'Save" which made me think of those giant supermarkets in American films. We also walked through the Botanic Gardens, which, although pretty, are nothing spectacular. Oh, except for some of the trees - they're enormous!

More photos from Christchurch:




We were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the hostel and met our 2 roomies from Germany. They'd apparently been there 1 night and were already bored of the city! That was kind of understandable though, we walked around the streets in the evening to try and find a nice bar to sit with a glass of wine but it was a ghost town by 7pm. We'll be back there later in the week though so perhaps there's more going on over the weekend.