Goodbye sweaty soup - Hello freezing cold!

Kia Ora! We've finally made it to New Zealand - crazy stuff, as it's always felt like this part of the trip was miles away! Well, we've got rather a lot to get you updated on (sorry - the internet hasn't been readily available), so we'd best get cracking!

MONDAY 25th June

We decided to spend today mainly in China Town, so we had to hop on the underground to get there and then began our day of sightseeing. We wandered around some of the 'back streets', visiting a few small Temples along the way. It's a bit sad in a way really, as China Town feels like it's lost it's true essence, as it's been renovated etc so many times, to 'improve' it. We also went to the China Town Heritage Museum, which was really interesting and explained how people initially came to Singapore and the kinds of conditions they lived in, what their social and cultural habits etc were and what jobs they had. There was even a 'mock-up' of the types of houses they lived, which was very eye-opening. We stopped for lunch afterwards and I bought a chop (Chinese seal - I've wanted one ever since Steve bought his) and even managed to haggle $5 off of the price (which Steve was very impressed with). We then made our way towards Little India for a wander around in the afternoon. We went to a really big food market, which was pretty cool (although rather dubious smelling most of the time) and we also passed lots of Mosques, which were really ornate and quite beautiful as well. Little India has been less interfered with by the authorities than China Town and so has managed to retain more of it's 'soul' and as we wandered around we felt we got more of the essence of a traditional way of life etc. We finally made it back to the hostel and just flopped after spending all day sightseeing around the city again! We're not too sure how impressed we've been with Singapore, in some ways it's like Hong Kong, but it's much sleepier in many ways and not as exciting as many of the other cities we've visited during our time in South East Asia.

TUESDAY 26th June

Not a very exciting day at all today! We didn't get up early, and then spent the morning packing our bags ready for our flight to New Zealand. We checked out of the hostel as late as we could, just so we didn't have to spend as much time hanging around at the airport. Once we got going though, we just hopped onto the underground, which took us straight through to terminal 2 at the Changi airport. We spent the first hour or so going backwards and forwards between the 2 terminals trying to find the post office so that we could send yet more souvenirs home! We then had a bite to eat for lunch and proceeded to sit around in terminal 1 not doing a lot besides sitting around and reading our books. We were finally able to get checked in 3 hours before our flight and so then went through and proceeded to read yet more of our books, whilst waiting for boarding to begin. The queue for boarding was absolutely enormous, as we were going on a double-decker plane and had 3 different companies using the same aircraft! So boarding took forever due to the number of people and the fact that we had to put our bags through X-ray machines and also go through the metal detectors ourselves! Finally we were on though and soon after in the air and on our way to Sydney, Australia. The flight was pretty smooth and took about 7.5 hours.

WEDNESDAY 27th June

What a palaver today has been?!?!? Our flight landed at some unearthly hour at around 05.00 and we had to go through the transfer flight checks (we didn't need to collect our bags or anything, but needed to go through security checks with our hand luggage). We then sat around in the Sydney airport terminal for about 3 hours to board our flight to New Zealand. We were slightly delayed getting onto the plane, but were finally boarded onto an incredibly empty flight (kind of surprised they didn't upgrade anyone - Steve and I are secretly hoping to get upgraded on our flight home from L.A.) and spent another 2.5 hours in the air, we even had a second breakfast (making us feel quite like hobbits)!
The troubles started when we landed. It took an age to get through passport control, as the plane had been full of Americans on some kind of tour and they all ended up in front of us in the queue! After the customs official had amazed at us managing to stay together after 3 months of travelling we were through into baggage collection. At first about 20 bags came through (including Steve's), but then they stopped the conveyor belt for over half an hour and so no bags could be collected from our flight. Finally the bags came through again, but then we had to go through the quarantine section - we had to have our boots checked by an official, but again all the Americans were in front of us and each of them had tonnes of stuff that needed checking by hand! Finally we were completely through customs (by the skin of my teeth - the official didn't like the clay that was stuck in the treads of my boots, but let me through eventually) at 15.15 (despite having landed at about 13.20), however once through we found out that the person who had come to take us to the hostel had left! They had been told no-one from our flight was left in customs and after putting out a tannoy announcement (which we didn't hear), he'd gone, as he had other things he needed to attend to as well. We managed to get a shuttle bus though which took us straight to the doors of the hostel for $25. After arriving we were shown around the hostel and after warming up with a cup of coffee we decided to brave the FREEZING cold and go to warehouse to buy some thermals (yes it is that FREEZING here, we've managed to go from one weather extreme to the other)! We also stopped for dinner whilst we were out, as we didn't feel like cooking! But were soon back in the hostel having another hot drink and filling up our water bottles before bed to try and get warm!

THURSDAY 28th June

It was an early start this morning, we had a worrying prospect that we were going to have to have freezing cold showers, but the water finally started to come through hot! We had to get packed up and have breakfast etc and then wait for the KiwiExperience bus to arrive at 07.50. we thought we'd missed the bus or were in the wrong place as the bus was really late, but it turned out the driver didn't know the address! So we got on board and were on our way to Kaikoura. When we finally got to Kaikoura we went to the Whale Watch centre (before hand we'd popped to the chemist to buy me some more travel sickness tablets - thank goodness) to go on a boat for a couple of hours to see if we could find any Sperm Whales. It was a very rough journey and so I'm very glad I had some tablets, otherwise I would have been sick as a dog! We weren't expecting to see more than 1, possibly 2 whales, but we ended up seeing 6! It was pretty cool to watch them, especially when they dived to begin their deep water dives! It was a shame we couldn't get more sense of how large they were, as you only see just over two thirds of their body mass when they rest at the surface. After all this excitement and lots of photo taking, we popped back to the room to have a look at our itinerary and eventually went out for some fish and chips for dinner!

FRIDAY 29th June

We didn't do a huge amount today. We made our way to Nelson and stopped on the way at Picton, so that some people could go over to Wellington and so that people from Wellington could join our bus. We then had another little stop for lunch at a Winery, where we got to stop for a free wine tasting (which wasn't really worth it as we only got to try 2 wines and weren't even taught how to taste properly, but just left to 'neck-it'). After stopping for lunch for ages we continued our journey to Nelson and by the time we arrived there wasn't time to do anything. We merely got checked into the hostel (which was pretty impressive, a nice surprise to have somewhere quite so posh to stay) and then went over to the supermarket to buy some dinner stuff and bits for lunch etc. On our way back we had to make a couple of phone calls to confirm bus seats and places on a trek we wanted to do on Saturday. Once back we cooked dinner and then didn't do anything more apart from reading!

SATURDAY 30th June

A very early start this morning, we had to be up and breakfasted and ready to be collected outside the hostel at 07.00 this morning so that we could be taken to the AquaTaxi Centre. Once at the centre we decided what route we wanted to do - initially we were going to be dropped off at Tonga and would walk to Torrent Bay, however the sea was far too rough and it would have been dangerous to be dropped off on the unsheltered beach of Tonga, so we were instead dropped off at Bark Bay and then walked to Anchorage instead. The walk was meant to take us 3.5 hours, but after having paid so much money for the water taxi we decided we wanted to take our time and enjoy it (despite the fact it was raining and that the fog was so low that it obscured any views we would have otherwise had). It was a really pleasant walk and it was refreshing to do one described as being easy and it actually turning out to be easy, rather than having near-vertical scrambles to go up! We stopped for lunch on the beach at Torrent Bay and then continued around to Anchorage where we arrived with about 15 minutes spare before the AquaTaxi would arrive to take us back to the centre. We had to get soggy legs to get back into the boat and it was so cold walking through the water - but they had towels on board so that we could dry off and put our boots back on. Once back on land we were taken by minibus back to the hostel, where we decided to have a 'meal deal' - a roast dinner with pudding. The roast was a disappointment, as I'd been picturing dad's roasts (I can't believe we've gone over 3 months without one), but the chocolate cake pudding certainly met expectations!

SUNDAY 1st July

Not a lot done today, at 08.15 we hopped back on the bus and made our way to Westport. We had a few stops on the way for lunch and loo breaks etc. We also had a stop to go for a short walk by one of the lakes at Nelson Lakes. When we finally got to Westport we went for a walk to go to the breakwaters, but unfortunately couldn't find the way and so ended up having a short walk around the town! We've not done anything else today though apart from sit on a bus!

Tomorrow we're off to Lake Mahinapua and then Franz Josef the day after, where we'll be stopping for a few days (I'm so excited). First impressions of the KiwiExperience aren't good though, it's not very easy to actually hop off the bus, as you end up being stuck somewhere for ages as the buses aren't running very frequently, but if you don't hop off the bus you only get to spend an afternoon in each place, which often doesn't give you enough time to do the things you wanted to. At the moment, we think it would have worked out just as cheap and much more flexible and suitable for us to have just rented a camper-van for the time we're spending in New Zealand. Oh well, best keep our chins up and make the most of it!

Liz - Great news about the house, I'm glad the decorating is coming along nicely. Hope the wall-knocking down goes well - don't demolish any load-bearing ones will you, or go through any pipes?! Also glad you got the birthday wishes too, hope you had a lovely time. We can't believe you have got a dog so soon! Is it a puppy or a grown-up doggie you have? She sounds lovely and I'm not surprised dad's too soft with her. Glad she's settled in and that the kittens like her too. Looking forward to seeing you all and the house when we get back (still feeling very jealous)! By the way - I hope you were being kept up to date with the blog, otherwise you have a LOT of catching up to do!

Mum - We did get here safely and getting to the hostel was easy peasy using the shuttle service, there was one ready and waiting to go as we walked out of the terminal, so we didn't even need to wait around! Just trying to get used to the cold - our thermals have been invaluable!