bedtime

We've spent the last five days since invercargill heading up to Christchurch.

The drive around the coast from invercargill was lovely, we had a couple of stops to watch seals, visit the southern most point in NZ, a fossil forest and generally admire the country and stayed in a bargin basement campsite which was only $4 for the both of us. It was right down on the beach and a great spot.



The next day we drove to Dunedin, where we spent two nights. We had a nice time generally relaxing and wandering around the town looking at the sights; a grand railway station, the art gallery, the cadbury factory etc. We didn't actually go into the factory, but Lex got very excited looking at the window displays of little men making the chocolate!





After Dunedin we headed back inland towards mount cook, which we drove up to and then did a short walk. We had an amazing day for it, with clear blue skies, hopefully the pictures will do it justice.



That night we stayed at a little town by a lake called Tekapo which is one of the biggest lakes in new zealand and a cosy little town. The next day we packed up the tent and drove to mount sunday.

To say it's a mountain is a bit of an exaggeration, its about the size of primrose hill, but it is surrounded by proper mountains and was used in the lord of the rings as the Edoras, it looked really spectacular on the way down to it (thanks hev and indy for the tip). From the road you would never know it's there but after a 40min drive down an unmade road on a cattle station you come to a valley in the mountain and it just pops up. amazing!



After our little detour to mount sunday we drove on to Methven where we planned to spent the night. After our arrival at about 3pm, we instead decided to head onto christchurch to get a day ahead of oursleves.

We arrived in christchurch just in time for rush our, plus the info desk had closed and we had no maps to the campsites. After a frustrating drive for about the next hour and a half, and 2.5 campsites later, plus directions for the gas station, we finally found somewhere to stay. Its hardly the ritz-the first other guest we saw had dodgy tatoos all over his face, but seemed friendly enough! After our long day on the road we got a take away pizza, and crashed.

Today we have been to new brighton (complete with pier) to have a sit on the beach, and booked our last four nights accomodation in a flat sharing with one other couple. As I right this we have only one more night in the tent before a real bed!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!

We'll try to do one more post in NZ, but If we don't manage it we'll see you in OZ.

A&A xx

p.s. thanks for all the comments, its nice to know people are keeping track of whats going on. Keep them coming!

also...
**** HAPPY BIRTHDAY Amanda... Have a great one! ****
* Ivan: Cheers for all your fab tips on where to go, I think we've just about packed them all in and we've definately had fun in your crazy Kiwi land! Hope the new jobs going well too.