Dunedin

I saw the fireworks in Botanical gardens behind the opera house on New Years Eve and it was very impressive. Long day though. We had to be there at 2 in the day. There were meant to be 22,000 in this park but it was spacious enough.

I arrived in Christchurch in New Zealand today. Very nice city but very nice. It's good to see indigenous people being treated properly here. The Maoris have 7 seats in parliament. Some facts for you - NZ has 4 million people but 39 million sheep. Up to 1967 the pubs here shut at 6 in the evening but thankfully that's all changed. In world war 1 100,000 of the 1 million poulation fought in the war which was 67% of men aged between 18 and 45.

We did the gondola in Christchurch the following day which is really a cable car to the top of the mountain. It has great view of Lytellton harbour where most of the antarctic explorers left from. They have what my understanding of a gondola is in the city but they call it a punt. Anyway I cycled down the mountain after which had brilliant views. We left for Twizel near Mount Cook taking in Lake Tekapo and Pukaki en route. The colour of these lakes were amazing. A kind of milky blue colour. We also saw Mount Cook en route. It looked amazing and we'd see it ourselves tomorrow.

We headed 60 km up the road to Mount Cook the following day and the views were class. Mount Cook is the highest mountain in NZ and it is fairly famous with the mountaineering fraternity. Edmund Hillary for instance climbed it before he tackled Everest. We did a couple of walks around here which were excellent. Cook is only climbed by the most experienced mountaineers and a guide was killed on the previous day so we gave it a miss climbing it.

We headed onwards to Dunedin where we still are. This place means Edinburgh in Scottish. We headed to an Albatross reserve this morning which was brilliant. The size of them shocked me. There wingspan is over 3 metres and they can glide up to 1000km a day. They're the largest seabird. Also as infants they can eat 2 kg a day. Sounds like a description of myself. I headed to Otago museum this evening while the Cronins headed for the Cadburys factory.

We'll head for Te Enau tomorrow, Milford sound the following day, Queenstown for at least 2 days, Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura after that.

Here are some photos from the New Years in Sydney as well as a few from Christchurch. I'll add the rest in due course.

Aquarium, New Years Eve, Christchurch