finally over! After this we headed off to the beach for a bit of a more chilled vibe, it had turned into a lovely sunny day which kind of meant that we should have left the gondola till the afternoon but hey we’re not weather forecasters! Penny drove us round to a couple of different beaches which were lovely but we opted for the one that was still bathed in sunshine. There were lots of surfers out and about so it was fun to watch them for a while. We then headed down the beach and came across a wedding. The couple were having all of there pictures taken on the beach with the backdrop of a magnificent sunset - we had a quick reminisce about how ace our wedding was then carried on. After the sunset we headed back towards the campsite and stopped off at a pizza place for a bit to eat before Penny dropped us off. We said our goodbyes but knew we’d be meeting up with her again before we left Christchurch for good.

The next morning we drove to the Banks Peninsula as we quite fancied staying in the area for a night. It was kind of similar to the Otago Peninsula except that there weren’t any sea lions! We drove to the little French village of Akaroa which was very pretty and very French! The French bought the entire Banks Peninsula from the local residents but as it turns out it wasn’t really theirs to sell, as the Maoris had already signed the Treaty of Waitangi - how cheesed off must the French have been when they found this out? Another reason for them to dislike the British!!! We had a great walk around the headland then drove to round to Okains Bays where we stayed in a bargain $7 a night campsite. This campsite was in a fabulous location, it was set back just from the beach and had the usual well equipped camp kitchen. The place apparently gets packed out throughout December and January and has booking made up to 6 months in advance for over the Christmas period - which I’m not surprised about, I