NEW ZEALAND

A new day dawns and a new country full of new adventures awaits! We got into Christchurch(Pronounced Ch-Ch by the locals) midday and were surprised how similar it was to our home and native land. A little strange seeing the leaves change colours in May but it was a little taste of home that we never got to experience in Sydney. Upon our arrival, our plans were as they always are, to fly by the seat of our pants. Partied for a few days with the good people we were meeting from our hostel(English GALORE!), took pictures, saw the sights, even played chess in Cathedral Square. We ended up meeting a couple from Grande Prarie who raved about the KiwiExperience as the best way to see New Zealand. They did the entire country, but we decided that we only had time to do the South Island and from what they said, the hop on/hop off bus pass of Kiwi sounded good to us. So on Sunday morning, we were on our way up the East coast to a small town called Kaikoura.

Kaikoura was a beautiful little town on the east coast of the South Island. Upon arriving and checking into our hostel we decided to take a little walk. Halfway through our little trek the weather began to scowl, but a little wind and rain was not to stop us. We visited some seals laying on the beach, played with some sheep grazing on the sidehills and generally just got our first taste on the New Zealand countryside. B-E-A-U-tiful!

We must also mention the following day, as this day marked the beginning of what would become a special group of people as we travelled the rest of the country. Meeting to play a game of poker in Kaikoura, what would become the "Touché Experience" composed of English friends Rob (Rocket Robbie), Chris (sunTanner), Rich (Rocksteady), Jordan(The River of Jordan) and Matt (The Germ) was born. The poker was great and the experience awesome, something that would be repeated many times over the next weeks. Following Kaikoura, it was off to Nelson and the beginning of NZ majestic West Coast...