Suzi's Travels

Apparently I didn't put enough pretty pictures in my last blog so here's a few more...

Here's the Catlins coastline from a lookout point somewhere along the way...

And here's Lake Tekapo (I think) with Mount Cook supposedly in the background, but we couldn't work out which one it's supposed to be... Yes, the water is really that blue, what, you think I know how to photoshop like that?????

Last Saturday I went out to the Antarctic Centre here in Christchurch. I went on a hagglund ride which is the all-terrain amphibious vehicle they use out in Antarctica... we went up and down some rather steep hills and then through a pool of water that was a few metres deep. Inside the Centre they have little blue penguins like the ones I saw at Oamaru (but wasn't allowed to take pictures of) earlier in the week, but much closer. These are rescued penguins and we could get much closer to them. The picture on the right is in the storm centre, where you can experience an Antarctic storm including wind chill. Luckily they give you nice warm coats as it was a pretty nice day that day so was in summer clothes ... they also give you rubber booties so they can keep the snow clean (not kidding).

Today I went on a bus rider out to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. It was really nice out there. This is a picture of the Cathedral Caves which were quite impressive. We saw lots of Hectors dolphins - some of the smallest in the world and very rare, they are only found in New Zealand - they were really playful, dancing around the boat... we also saw a fur seal and some little white winged penguins (or something)... we almost ran a couple over in the boat on the way back but luckily just missed them. It turned into a pretty lovely day today thank goodness.

I've pretty much been just chilling in Christchurch since I got here. I made my way out to the Westfield Mall at Riccarton yesterday but managed not to buy anything - yey, I'm making progress! I also went to see the local professional theatre production of Guys and Dolls on Saturday, which was very good... the dude playing Sky Masterson was no Ewan MacGregor, but hey, given that the last thing I saw was a very amateur production of Rent (8 times), this looked really good to me. I really miss having the West End on my doorstep though.

What else? Well, not a lot really. I'm trying not to hemorrhage any more money... just need to get through December and I should be ok.

I'm in Chch for one more day before I head up to Kaikoura and then on to Picton on Saturday where hopefully I'll get another bus over to Motueka to see Kat for a wee catch up.

So that's pretty much it, more soon!