Day 2 (New Years Day): I enjoyed a Kiwi style Barbie (complete with cold tinnies, of course). The food was good, the people nice & conversation pleasant. The weather was good too - sunny in the high 20's - it makes a nice change to enjoy Jan 1st in T-shirt & shorts! New Years Eve (Day 1) was a party with some of the family that I'm stopping with here.

Day 3: Today I went on a 300km trip visiting other friends in the Christchurch area for lunch and dinner. One of the families lives on a sheep & arable farm so I got to have a look round. In addition, the son is a Kiwi young farmer. After lunch we set off on the scenic inland route via Rakaia and Waimakariri gorges. It was very pretty but the water was extremely muddy because of all the recent rain. The sky was strange - it had a definite haze to it - smoke from the Sydney bushfires I was told!

Day 4: My friend from young farmers who is in NZ on a working holiday flew down to Christchurch, and together with a couple of my friends from here we went on a Wild West Mini Golf Adventure - bit like crazy golf but much much bigger and much much better. I managed to get a few holes in one too!

Day 5: We went to the small French harbour town of Akaroa where I went for a swim with the extremely rare & endangered Hector Dolphins! Smallest of the dolphins, Hector dolphins only travel in small pods, usually of 2 or 3 animals, though we saw a pod of 5! This is the opposite of Kaikoura where there can be a hundred or more (dusky) dolphins in a pod. So, well worth the dip in the freezing cold water! After dinner, we went partying in Christchurch - first an Irish bar called "The Bog" which had a really good live Irish band. Then we moved onto a disco bar where we had a boogie and more drinks!