Good NZ times

So here I am in New Zealand!

Bit of a drama getting here, the plane from HK was late so I thought I was going to miss my connection. This was made worse by NZ's frankly ridiculous laws about bringing things into the country which meant that some silly little dog started waving its paws around by my handbag because I'd had an apple in it earlier (which I had eaten!) They then had to x-ray my bag which slowed everything down and I became convinced I was going to miss my connection. So this nice lady I'd befriended at HK airport gave me a lift to the domestic connection bit and somehow I caught the plane!

So Alana picked me up at the airport and we went to the hostel. We were in a room with 35 beds / "bids" as the kiwis would call them which I reckon is quite hardcore. We went out for a few drinks and then had an early night.

The next day I called up Sian and we met up with her in the centre of Christchurch. There was a cool busker's festival on which was full of random people doing random things like juggling fire on a unicycle or pretending to be mannequins and such ridiculousnesses. So we did a lot of that.

In the evening that night (Saturday I think, days have lost all meaning) we went to some pubs. Sian and I were boogying away to some crazy Irish music and befriended some equally crazily dancing kiwi boys who were very entertaining. They took us all to a weird bar called "the cleaning room" where we danced with hoovers and such (like the Britney dancing at mine andrew & chris!) and played limbo with a broom. Fun times.

Sunday we had a lazy day watching lots more busking shows and a concert in the park. We then went to a stand-up comedy show in the evening which was very good, aside from the kiwi in-jokes which I didn't understand.

Monday was tourist-fest day. We went on a punt on the Avon, a tram tour around the city and a cable car up a mountain. Or maybe a big hill, I don't know how one tells them apart... We then went back to where Sian is staying (lucky so-and-so has managed to wangle free accommodation for a month!) and she cooked a lovely chilli, then we went to another comedy show. This one was also good, highlight was when the lady was talking about naughty illegal things and asked if there were any cops in, Sian pointed out Alana who then got lots of abuse. Yay!

Tuesday Alana and I said bye to Sian and drove on down to Dunedin. We went a very long and round-about route to see lots of touristy places. The towns in NZ are ridiculously small and pointless but it's very pretty. I've never been so into looking out the window, beautiful. Loving the beaches, and the sheep dog statues too.

Yesterday I woke up late at Alana's in Dunedin and had the laziest of lazy days. Went to the supermarket, made a salad and some cauliflower cheese, lay around in the garden (at 4pm, with factor 30 and still tanned! amazing!) and had a bbq. Fabulous. Today I am being equally lazy although we're planning to go see some crazy steep street later and some birds. Got to love the random kiwi activities. Then Cadbury world tomorrow - yay!

Sorry this has been a bit long and boring. I will write again soon with some more amusing excerpts. Thanks again to the texters - this week's special mentions go to Lanny, Heff, Ed, Trots, Dave and Jim. Check out the photos if you haven't already, and keep in touch! xxx