New Zealand

I'm in New Zealand! It's all different! Here are some things regarding New Zealand about which I am particularly excited:

They drive on the left
Christchurch has a district called St Albans
Everyone is really friendly, polite and helpful
The have Her Majesty The Queen on their money
Everything is clean and shiny
It smells like England
You can't get in to your room till 12, and reception isn't open 24 hours
They do a good old English breakfast
There are parks everywhere
They have GOOD OLD BOURNVILLE MADE CADBURY'S CHOCOLATE
They have a FISH AND CHIPS VAN
The computers smell like the ones at Birmingham university's learning centre
The colon is in the right place on the keyboard and in order to attain an @ sign you need not perform the typing equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time.

I already really like the place, and I'm looking forward to relaxing from jet lag here in Christchurch for a couple of days before deciding which mountains to go to.

Yesterday I caught a flight from Santiago over the Pacific Ocean to Auckland. The flight was brilliant - I haven't slept so much on a flight ever before. I found that they had Pink Floyd's Pulse in the in-flight music selection, so with the aid of that and an eye mask I dropped off immediately. I love flying so much - I just love the idea of getting on a plane and flying over a whole ocean.

Before my flight yesterday I caught up with my Australian friend Nina, who is going to be spending the next five months in Santiago pretending to be a student. In reality she's going to be 'studying' mountaineering and Italian, a language she already speaks. We spent most of the afternoon swapping anti Australian/British jokes which was most delightful.

Due to the fact that my flight took off on the 2nd March and arrived on the 4th March, I decided to award my achievement at spending absolutely no money on the 3rd by treating myself to a full English breakfast. It was shockingly expensive at 5 pounds, but I suppose I'm going to have to get used to that. And the sausages were real sausages, and the bacon was greasy, and there were HASH BROWNS. It was worth far more than what I paid for it. What's more, the waitress smiled all the time (not in an annoying fake-smile way), and thanked me for my order. New Zealanders seem very happy people. (But I suppose I might be if I was luckily enough to be born in such a beautiful country). I'm very much looking forward to exploring and finding out more about this great country.