First few days

Our journey started on November 26th when me, Ian and Jan departed London for Christchurch, New Zealand via L.A & Auckland. It was one long tiresome journey, the first plane to L.A. took 11 hours with a short 1 hour stop over in L.A. before embarking on the 12.5 hour journey across the Pacific to Auckland, NZ. Arriving in Auckland I was quite nervous about whether my visa would be accepted as we had no return ticket but it was a swift process getting the required stamp. Once we got through customs it was great to leave airport and breathe in the first bit of fresh air in the Southern Hemisphere after spending so long in a fuselage, but we still had one more connecting flight to get. Checking in our bags again we got on the last plane, only to have to leave the plane because of a technical fault! The plane was only delayed by an hour and a half then we got on for the last short hour journey by plane.

Arriving is Christchurch was somewhat dismal with grey skies and rain. We knew it was 6.7 miles to walk to the city from airport but the taxi seemed too expensive and we are cheapskates. Jetlagged with massive rucksacks we took on the 6.7 mile in the rain. It was bloody tiresome but fun, the houses here are all so odd/unique. One house looked like something from Star Wars, it seems they get their own plot of land and build their own home. We met some funny people on the way, got slightly lost, walked through the planning of some xmas coca cola festival. Finally making it to the city some 2 hours later it was a lovely place, old architecture, cathedral, trams but it had a strange American vibe. The hostel is super nice, we met some cool guys and girls there. One guy who's always there is John, a 40yr old Polynesian man who's planning on spending 7 months in this hostel. He's quite the interesting character with some cool homemade tattoos.

In terms of goings on, we been dossing about the City, catching buses, getting lost, meeting strangers. We pick up our camper van tomorrow so then the exploring starts! Ian bought an axe yesterday for possible campfires. I think any new people in our room might get quite scared if they see it in our room hahaha. Jan also bought some fishing hooks! This is going to be funny! Hopefully post some photos up soon.