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Home from Home

May 19 - We had a little walk around Picton.  It's a lovely quaint town, very beautiful & surrounded by mountains. We had breakkie & chatted about the dive before setting off.  The drive was equally as beautiful, and after being in New Zealand for over two weeks in total, I finally saw some sheep, I was beginning to think it was all a lie, although a lot of them weren't moving and so I think they're stuffed : )  We saw some seals on the way down to Kaikoura, they were just lazing around on rock, some of which were high, so I've no idea how they got up there.  We stoped & walked around Kaikoura for a while & then Dan took us to the Seal watch area, where you walk across the rocks close to the seals.  One seal was on the move & was just rocking back & forth and it reminded me of how I felt yesterday when I fell down & couldn't get up!  We got back into the car & ate our sandwiches whilst watching them.  We spent a lot of the day driving down to Springfield YHA hostel but it was so beautiful you really don't mind.  We were the only ones staying at the hostel so in the evening we sat in front of the heater watching Videos.

May 20 - Back on the road again & we headed through the mountains and Arthur's Pass.  It's beautiful and as it was raining, the waterfalls were in full flow & there was one part of the road which goes under a very small bridge which is there just to divert the water over the top of you, so it freefalls on the other side.  Some of Narnia & Lord of Rings were filmed in this area.  We went with Dan to met his friend Bob, who is a lovely man & his family were really nice too.  We popped into a small village called Hokitika, which had a Jade factory & a little shop with painted rocks in, which I really liked.  We headed back to Dan's Auntie Jane & Uncle Jerry's house as they have kindly let us stay with them.  There are lovely & there house is beautiful, set in a beautiful surrounding.  We also met Dan's Gran, Mia who is actually called Mia as her younger brother couldn't pronounce Maria, I explained this is also how I got to be called Mia as one of my closest friends' daughter couldn't pronounce Maria when she was younger.  We popped to a pub for dinner and got there 5 minutes before they stopped serving, but the lady in the kitchen didn't mind.  We were the last ones to leave the pub....at 8.30pm!

May 21 - We had breakkie & headed into Horby to have a look around.  The cinema was showing Wild Hogs which we've wanted to see since February & so we decided to go & see it.  It was worth the wait.   

May 22 - Dan took us to Rakaia Gorge, which is a strong river running under a bridge.  It was beautiful & we all had a quick go at skimming rocks into the river.  We quickly popped into Christchurch as I'm trying to find a coat, but no luck.  We then came back & spent the evening with Dan's Auntie & Uncle.

May 23 - I can't believe how well I'm sleeping, I haven't slept so much in years! Finished typing up my blog & then after dinner, Tom & I did the Glen Tunnel Walk.  It took about an hour and a half, but was amazing.  We just wondered across field, up & down hills and through broken trees.  There are signs giving you information of places you passed & the history of such i.e. the stables where the horses for the mines were kept, the museum (a very small hexagon building which is now also the library), the coal mine (which is now no longer in use), a tunnel and a garden where the old railway line went through.  The tunnel was made to avoid a toll that another land owner was charging for the mined coal being taken across his land, however the tunnel was not used for long as a tramway was then laid near them.  Jane made us tea & we watched TV with Jane & Jerry until we went to watch the premier of Pirates of the Caribbean 3.....mmm Johnny Depp & Orlando Bloom

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