Have you ever noticed that going on holiday only makes more work upon your return? Since coming back from New Zealand 2 weeks ago I've been busy. Really busy. Like.. I haven't even had time to read the newspaper throughout the day. Not that..you know.. I do that often.

The only thing I've really been doing is eating. Ahem.

And looking at photos from New Zealand. And also looking for a new pair of black pumps for work.

Are you thinking of a South Island road trip? You probably should consider it; it's a really great idea. A warning though, the roads are windy in parts and sometimes there's only so many mountains you can see in a day whilst remaining impressed and in awe. Maybe that's just me.. philistine.

*Day One*

Originally the plan was to fly into Christchurch on Saturday lunchtime. Instead, we left Sydney on Friday night, arriving in the middle of the night New Zealand time. I should have taken some valium to make me sleep, but my stash dwindles, so I didn't sleep until 2am. Still, it was a good idea to go earlier because it meant on Saturday we had enough time to pick up our car (Apex, seemed pretty good, though Rob was convinced it smelled funny), and drive to the International Antarctic Centre (pretty much at the airport) in time for THE PENGUIN FEEDING. If you feed a penguin a fish (Dutch sprats, for the record) tail first, he will flip it around so it goes down head first. Smooth scales that way. Penguins: clever as well as ridiculously cute!

Yeah ok, maybe not that clever. These 3 were looking at the wall, fixated. They were still looking at the wall, fixated, 20 minutes later when we went into the special 'backstage' penguin viewing platform.

It is kind of expensive, but at the Antarctic Centre you need to buy the backstage access pass. You need to. Sitting on the no-slip vinyl floor of a fish-scented vet clinic, I came within 30cm of a penguin. I so badly wanted to pat it, or get bitten or something (penguin scar!), but there's no touching. It's bad for their swimming oils, and lately I'm all about oils.*

Turk is blind in one eye and, well, a little bit challenged. She's very docile though: we sat and looked at each other for 20 minutes.

 From Christchurch we drove to Akaroa. The road winds a lot (well, you know,  it is an extinct volcano, so perhaps that could have been anticipated) and I wanted to spew. In hindsight, we probably could have left Akaroa out. We didn't get there until quite late in the day (spent too much time with the penguins, ay) and so not much was happening. We looked at some ducks, and marvelled at my continuing mad skills at finding awesome accomm, drank a bottle of pinot noir, and then went back into the town/village for dinner. I had fish (regular, nothing ah-mazing). Rob had steak (ah-mazing, aged eye filet; best filet ever tasted in my short time on earth to-date). I didn't have dessert because I was being virtuous and had eaten most of a brie wheel before dinner.




Um PS. Hi, can anyone reading help me with some css? I want to centre the embedded flash album and I know not how. Nerds?? Someone???



*Potential future post on how I'm now cleaning my face with apricot kernel oil mixed with castor oil. It's the oil cleansing method. I'm trying to be natural. I was too cheap to buy the organic oil, but seriously, whatevs.