Oh man - the first post. The pressure.

Well - we made it to NZ - a pretty big first day - up at 3am to leave for the airport. It rained. We got to Sydney - it was raining. Flew to Christchurch (hereafter referred to via the charming local abbreviation 'ChCh') - it was... raining. Drove to Dunedin - within an hour, we had spotted our first 'big thing' - an impressive 'Big Salmon' = WIN. NZ is apparently a hollow bag filled with water - everyone has a 40 metre sprinkler running 24/7. We of course celebrated upon arrival with a luxuriant 4.5 minute shower (those extra 1.5 minutes make such a difference - believe me).

Dunedin is a cool town - nice old architecture, a conveniently placed chocolate factory (city centre!) and a modest but entertaining castle with some cute ducklings. Weather - rain. The hostel we stayed in is well worth a mention - a cool old hospital building with 140 doors (they counted, not us). The evening meal was made a little more lively - a girl had bought 3 live lobsters and was attempting to boil them up in a way-too-small pot - she was scared to even touch them! I offered to do them in with a large butcher's knife - the last one wasn't too happy about this, and made a leap for freedom across the kitchen floor (this is after some serious impalement through what I thought was the brain area!). Our sandwiches seemed pretty tame after that!

We're sitting in Te Anau at present - on the edge of the lake, with some pretty impressive snow capped mountains overlooking us. Checking out Milford Sound on a day trip tomorrow. My bet is - rain!