Well we waited and waited and never received a call from Tim. Not having his number there wasn't alot we could do so we just hung around in Queenstown (played another game of golf - Jen won this time) and headed out for a few games of pool (which, she points out, she also won) , a few beers (or baileys and malibu if you're a girl) and some food at a bizarre japanese teppankyaki place. On waking we headed the 250 kms to Moeraki - home of the boulders. These are like huge marbles (some 1-2 metres across) that have found themsleves on the beach and are slowly being eroded by the wind, and sea (and seemingly the endless bloody rain!!) They are really striking as there's about 20 of them and n-one really knows why they're there.

We left around lunchtime and carried on up the road to Christchurch, where we watched the Warriors lose and caught up on email last night. Our first (well to be honest Jen's) bits of Spanish seemingly have gone down quite well as we have had a couple of replies from places which, when translated, seemed to answer our questions. Our 'learn Spanish in the van' has gone really well, if we're asked our name or our nationality - we can also so we're 'very well thank-you'...but we're buggered if we're ill!!! I'm going to attempt to learn it in 11 hours on the plane, unless there're some REALLY good movies on...

On our way back to the campervan depot today we had a bit of an incident when a cyclist and car collided just in front of us in the middle of one of the busiest junctions in Christchurch (on the main thoroughfare to the airport from town). Jen hopped out (being a qualified 1st aider!!) and took control of the situation, we donated a fleece blanket to the cyclist, who, after a brief check up by the paramedics was found to be OK - just cuts and bruises. We eventually made it back to the depot and gave our van back and got the deposit back (important bit). SO here we are in Christchurch - this'll probably be the last entry before we head to South America so just a couple of minutes to sum up NZ really. It is so similar to the UK - weather, people, places, most of the scenery (we don't have stuff like Milford/Queenstown though). They people are, as a nation, warm and friendly with a real self-depricating sense of humour and are little pessimistic at the best of times ('Oh we'll never win the world cup' 'we're bound to have a big earthquake soon, we're overdue by 800 years' etc etc...). Again, very similar to the UK. They also like to take the piss out of their nearest neighbours (the Aussies) as we do with the Scots and French etc...

All in all we've really enjoyed it here, although the last 4 1/2 months have been 'plastic' travelling really as it'sa been sooooo easy. South America should be a whole new ball game, we're going to have to get back to haggling, watching our packs like hawks, and eating new food (not burgers, kebabs and the like)...hell we may even get a tan in some parts as we're both now whiter than white again. We're determined to come back to NZ in their summer and do the things we couldn't for whatever reason (dive the Poor Knights, walk the Tongariro and Routeburn tracks, see Milford without gale-force winds and rain), and will certainly miss the people and ease of travelling...goodbye 2 hours in a campervan, hello (again) 12 hours in a truck. In mud. Miles from anywhere.