"I woke up so early it was 2 days ago"

Kia ora!

Several thousand miles and 30  hours later, we have arrived in New Zealand. There are pics of pretty sunrises but they have to be added later because we are writing this on Amy's kindle. Grr.

Here is the view that greeted us as we flew over the Southern Alps.

Um. Things what happened:

• Lots of films were watched.
• Very little sleep was had.
• Amy lost two cups of tea on herself because of turbulence.
• Zoe missed out on tea twice because she was sleeping.
• Dubai drove us around the airport for about 200 miles and then we had to get straight back on a plane.
• There was a moment of despair in Bangkok when we realised we weren't even halfway there.
• We saw Danni in Christchurch airport (when we finally got there) and it turns out she's one of the kiwi fruit police. Her dog is adorable.

This is us being jetlagged. We call it "stupid selfie of the day".
Things what happened on our day in Christchurch:

• Amy was accidentally rude to a German.
• We went to the re-start mall which is made of shipping containers and had a drink.
• Then we wandered around Christchurch which is a bit of a building site at the moment which is sad.

• We went to the new cathedral but we couldn't take pictures because there was a funeral on so we went to PaknSave instead.
• Then we went back to the cathedral and finally took photos.
• Then we had a tour around the museum with Marissa and Amy rode on a pennyfarthing.
• Zoe sodded off and had Mexican with Danni and Amy and Claire played pool and cards.

It has been fun. More posts will follow.

The title is because of a woman in Christchurch airport who claimed they had to get up really early to get on a 9:15 flight from Sydney to Christchurch which lasted 2 and a half hours. Snark.

-written by Amy. Dictated by Zoe.

Shawn the Prawn and his delicious little friends...

Our first planning session in months is underway. Well, I say underway. This is Amy and Claire doing useful stuff:

They're looking up useful things like hostels and things to do at the many, many places we're going to visit. This is what I was doing:

Because all of our planning sessions need to be soundtracked by the brilliance that is Howard Shore. And then it all just degenerated into silliness. Beak the Kiwi got a mind of her own (or rather, Claire gave up doing serious bits):

And then I found the most excellent thing ever when trying to find things to do in Taupo while Claire's throwing herself out of a plane. (Have I mentioned about Claire throwing herself out of a plane? I'm going to wait at the bottom and take pictures of her screaming). It is called the Huka Prawn Park. We are amused:

"If learning about a day in the life of Shawn the Prawn doesn't fire your imagination, dine on some of Shawn's delicious little friends in the adjacent riverside restaurant." Gotta love this Rough Guide.

And then we adjourned for lunch. Which lasted about 3 hours. Then the fun of booking began. So far we've managed to get the hostels and most of the activity/additional things booked for the first week. So the first few days look like this:

• 28th July - Arrive at Christchurch. Be jet-lag zombies.
• 29th July - Slob around Christchurch. Continue to be jet-lag zombies.
• 30th July - Catch the TranzAlpine Scenic train from Christchurch across the Southern Alps to Greymouth. Pick up the car, then do some sightseeing - up north to the Pancake Rocks and then south to spend the night at Franz Josef.
• 31st July - Trip to Fox Glacier. It will be epic. And cold, probably. Very, very cold.
• 1st August - Drive down to Queenstown. Spend the afternoon wandering around the town and admiring the cold, cold views.
• 2nd August - Take a day trip down to Milford Sound (not booked yet). Try not to squee at all the pretties.
• 3rd August - Drive east over to Dunedin. There's not a lot there, so it'll be a nice relaxed day.
• 4th August - Drive north up to Kaikoura. Various stops on the way, including the Moeraki Boulders, which are awesome. It's a 6.5 hour drive, so Amy and Claire will no doubt collapse when we get there.

My debit card doesn't know what's hit it and we've only just done the first week! All the excitement.