Well hello peeps from Christchurch NZ. This is a very very intruiging little place thats prentending to be somewhere in england...nice try but its full of Kiwis!...anyhoo havent really seen much of it as we have just left the Van...ah the memories the memories...however its fekin ace to be in a real room (especially one with a heater telly fridge telephone own bath and shower and an electric blanket...the luxury of it all) We spent last night eating take out in bed watchin sky movies for about 8 hours listening to the rain outside the windo and chuckling...however this maybe due to the fact that the last days spent in the van were a little trying to say the least. I basically caught flu and we were holed up in akaroa in the middle of a gale on the side of a hill with satan himself unleashing his worst rain and wind at the van..while we huddled inside playing cards
...not that fun really but nevermind...mind you the fish and chips are good there...and its quite cute in the sun... and very french (well for a place in NZ that is)
anyhow what have we been up to..basically from chistchurch we headed down the west coast to te anau and new zealands fiordland..basically really dramatic landscapes and beautiful countryside. We free camped on the banks of the lake and took a trip up to milford sound from there. Milford is renound as NZ's most scenic countryside...however our walk the day before was in spectacular weather and so we were a bit biased but it basically looks like this:
Not bad really. Shame it wasnt either heaving it down (loads of waterfally alllegedly) or as sunny as the day we had before, but never mind - got another boat trip out of it too and saw penguins, and seals and all sorts so cant compain (hehehe) . The next thing we did was go off towards the catlins coast we legged it down to bluff via Invicargill (arrrgh dont stop keep driving they all look like siblings) and headed for the catlins coast...we cut off a load (doh) going on the inland road but doubled back to a place called nugget point...which is an amazingly beautiful place lush beaches and its own penguin and seal colonies... we stayed at a placve called kaka point at the friendliest campsite ever...we'd run out of cash were in the middle of nowhere and they let us stay and use their facilities and then let us drive off in the morning to go to the next village to get their cash for them...so nice! We then went off to omarau past these crazy perfectly spherical boulders where i couldnt resist a little nod to daniel san...well if he had perfectly round boulders instead of a groyne then i bet mr myagi would have him practice on them!
Anyhoo Omaru was a v cool old place with some of the most eccentric characters ever (the book shop guy called bill who is actually a carpenter was prone to getting his mates together dressing up in full english millitary uniform and having organic food fights! He's also a fawn in the new Lion the witch and the wardrobe film) Its also where the wizard of christchurch hangs out when he's not in christchurch. quite. Anyhoo we didnt see the blue penguins there as it looked like a freakshow for the japanese with giant grandstands and all sorts...so we headed up to mount cook for a while and chilled out for a few days walking in the mountains...went to lake tekapo and then killed time got flu and ended up right here... gonna hang around for a while here in Christchirch and hope the weather improves and see what happens. Thats all for now folks!
Me with a lamp post coming outta my head on st kilda pier melbourne(cheers mel)
