New Zealand - Southside Mutha Ucka

Having properly rediscovered our party shoes in Australia it was off to New Zealand for more of the same please. We may have told everyone that we were heading to see some of the most amazing ranges of hills and mountains coupled with stunning coastal scenery and the odd sheep but in fact New Zealand was stop two on the Australasian Drinking leg of our honeymoon!

The main (only) reason for our stop in Christchurch was to see the much missed Miranda Charles, ex colleague and Moorgate drinking buddy of mine. A few years ago she decided to leave us in the UK and hightail it back to her homeland, now settled with a v nice house and quite a moody cat.

After picking us up from the airport (a great luxury also meaning that there was no need for the usual bus vs taxi discussion which I usually lose) we were whisked to drop off our bags followed by a whistlestop tour of the surrounding hills so that Tracker Cath could get her bearings and I could get some photos...which you will all have to wait for.

Once we had taken in the scenery it was time to acquaint ourselves with the local brew, Steinlager was the first we tried in a kooky little bar overlooking the port in Lyttleton...followed by dinner where Miranda spotted a local comedy / radio celebrity.

After a very pleasant night´s sleep in the honeymoon suite (thanks for use of your bed M, we behaved) we set off for a walk around Christchurch. Continuing on from our Anzac day experience we went to a great little exhibition about the war and pension graves that are kept up by some very dedicated people around the world, if you have a few minutes check out this website to see what they do. - War Graves Commission After more strolling we stopped for some coffee and snacks where I had a sausage roll which was more a leg of pig covered in a thin crust - yum!!

Seeing as we hadn´t had any beer yet that day we soon found oursleves being drawn to the Lanes (cute, artsy shopping area) and a pub with it´s own microbrewery where we sampled a few of the ales and patiently waited for the arrival of the enigmatic P. Buchanan who appeared on all of the drinking wall of fame on the wall inside...sadly he didn´t show.

That evening was a chance to meet some of Mirandas friend´s and hopefully we didn´t show oursleves up...the homemade pizza we made seemed to go down well as did the Classic Cocktails provided by a couple of other Poms!! Much talk of travels and a few more beers to try saw a late night and not a particularly early start the following day for our trip out into the South Island countryside. We were off to Akaroa which prides itself as being a little French enclave...but in fact only the amusing road names show any sign of Gallic influence. Getting a little peckish we searched for something such as a baguette but to no avail settling for fush and chups...another amusing name as the local catch of the day was Groper.

After a long day on the road and with Miranda suffering as much as us from the night before we decided it was a good idea to have a night in...and obviously finish off the beer from the previous evening. This gave Miranda and I the ideal opportunity to educate Cath in the Way of the Conchords. The Flight of the Conchords are a NZ band / comedy duo who are only matched the Richard´s Stillgoe and Digance (ask your dad) for music based comedy. I won´t bore you with details but click here and here if you want a small slice of their mirth and then go and find their DVD, album or show which is prob on BBC2. Six or seven episodes later we all toddled off to bed tired but happy, our last night with the Charles well spent!!

Normally this is where a post would end as you don´t really want to hear about our trip to the airport or what we get up to after we have checked in...but Christchurch came up with a cunning idea - they set up an Antarctic Exploration Centre within a couple of minutes walk of the main airport terminal. So after checking in we trotted over the road and learnt all about penguins and sub zero wind chill first hand...and got to ride in one of the vehicles used to mount great snow dunes, driven by one of those chaps who enjoys making sure everyone knows firstly how wacky he is and then scaring the bejesus out of them.

Right that really is it now, go and read something else...or do some work...which you probably should have been doing anyway...or you could send us a comment?