New Zealand! Nice place!
Arrived in Christchurch early this morning. Customs were serisouly strict it took nearly an hour to clear and about 15 minutes for us just to get through the passport control desk (which is how it should be i guess). Richs didjeridoos nearly didnt make it and would have spent a very long time in quarantine. But after serious inspection in the MAFF biohazard lab and some form of chemical treatment they were released - much to Richs delight.
It's amazing how english this place looks. The major difference so far is that its not half as crowded and built up. And because of this, like in oz, the sky seems huge and you can see so much more! We went shopping to the supermarket in the town centre this afternoon and when we looked up we could see the mountains on the edge of town: Pak 'n' Save against a snow capped mountain back drop - awesome! Yes, snow! Theres been plenty of hail and light snow today - very wet, but thats ok its NZ - the weathers meant to be like that here. Buying some big warm coats is the plan for tomorrow. We found a huge second hand clothes shop earlier which sold everything! I got a really cool All Blacks and Lions (2005) long black fleece scarf for about 3 pounds. We also found out that the All Blacks have a couple of fixtures against England next month..........that would be really cool to see!!!
No other plans just yet
Oh god rich has broken the door off its hinges in the kitchen must go and help instead of laughing........
The kitchen door has now been fixed and someone has attached huge arrow signs to them saying 'Slide'.
Spent most of the week trying to arrange some voluntary work on organic farms, so hopefully something will work out with that for a few weeks.
We have been out and about around Christchurch - to the museum, arts centre, markets, botanical gardens and did a 7km walk through the Port Hills over to a really small village called Sumner. Part of our walk included a 'gondola' (small cable car) ride up to the summit of one of the hills. I don't really like these things anyway. Well half way up it stopped - i nearly passed out with fright it was awful - just dangling high up in mid air above a hillside. It started a few minutes later and when we got tot he top i could hardly get off it i was shaking so much - never again!
On a more fun note we got asked to be extras in a promotional dvd again! the maori mutlicultural centre came to the hostel looking for 'tourists' to feature as extras in their new promo. we got to go to the maori centre at Willowbank wildlife park. rich had to act out the role of 'chief of the tourists' which meant he got challenged by maoris and had to greet the big maori chief. well, i say acting - there was no script involved - and he only had to act like a tourist. it was a fun day and we got to see some kiwis (the birds) and got the tour and tribal show free.
We have finally got some work on 2 farms arranged for the next few weeks. One has got cattle and alpacas and the other has llamas which they are trying to train (to do what i dont know), sop that should be interesting........
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