Wow! Great! Amazing! Beautiful! Fantastic!...

These are the words that keep on being uttered from my mouth! I just can't help myself! This place is fantastic! I mean, it really is all that you expect it to be (though I still find it hard to imagine that I'm really here!). I mean, the view from my hostel here at the moment in Kaikoura (east coast of the south island and about 150kms north of Christchurch) is incredible (yey! Another adjective!). I just can't describe it! And I can't even see half of it because it's been covered by a blanket of mist all day! Basically you look out onto a bay, and on the otherside of the bay there are these mountains that have snow at the top (though I can't see the snow at the moment). Hopefully the mist will clear up tomorrow so I can see the mountains and take a picture of the full extent of the view I have here from my dorm room!

To tell you the truth, so far I've stayed in such beautiful places with each hostel having something special! In the blue mountains, there were parrots flying above your head while you ate breakfast on the terrace, in Newcastle, I could see the see from my bed!, in Sydney my dorm was in a train wagon, in Christchurch I stayed in a hostel that used to be a villa so had a lot of atmosphere and was situated next door to thebotanical gardens and here I am today looking at the most stunning view ever (even though I can't see most of it!)

Yesterday I just wondered around Christchurch and jsut enjoyed the large park and botanical gardens they have there. They also have these green houses where they have orchaids (some very unusual ones at that!) and also lots of diffrent types of ferns (they have 130 species here in NZ apparently!). They also had huge trees! I mean, I did take pictures but not with me beside them so they could be any size really, judging from the pictures! lol! Also visited the museum there. Not really a museum person but this one was nice and it was free (that counts for a lot these days!). There was also this rafts market and I was very tempted to buy some things but hey, I'll be in NZ for another 4 months so I'll see if I can pick up any bargains. Basically they had turned the old college into a crafts place where you can get a studio and see your art. Very nice! got to see people working with gems, glass, pottery, wool etc....

Got up early this morning to catch the bus to Kaikoura which took 3 hrs since the road is so bendy! I looked out the window the whole time and thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many sheep! Sheep, sheep, sheep and MORE sheep! Lol! Apparently they have like just under 4 million people living in NZ but have like 24 million sheep! So that's like 6 sheep for every person?

So I'm in the bus to Kaikoura when I read the following sign: "The faster you go, the bigger the mess". Sorry, a bit morbid but I thought it was clever!

Kaikoura is a beautiful little place! It's mostly survived because of tourism and there are lots of things to do here like going to watch the whales, swim with dolphins and seals, learn to dive etc... but all at such touristy prices that I'm resigned to just walking! On top of that, today I was thinking of spending 70 dollars (about 40 euros) to go swimming with seals, but then decided to go see them from this walk, and I got to them UPCLOSE AND PERSONAL! And all that for free! You can just walk amoung them! That was really cool!

Still haven't got my pictures on a CD. You can do that here but have to pay like 15 dollars. If I get desperate I may do that. Just find it such a rip off! Will first try and do that by people I'm hoping to work for on farms. perhaps they will allow me to do it for free!

RIghty, going to bed. Want to get up early to go for a nice long walk before the bus picks me up to take me to Picton (north point of the south island where the ferry goes to Wellington). Hope all is well with everyone!