A proper update then...

Right so the last update was not of the highest quality I must admit. So long story short. We went to the southern most part of the island then to a somewhat unpleasant lake, although could maybe be more to do with the mood I was at the time. So I shouldn't really blame the lake. It was the deepest in New Zealand. Very impressive, you could really see the deepness... Or depth even. So after that we wandered around for a bit. Coming to rest in Akaroa on the Banks peninsula. Very picturesque area just outside Christchurch, deep green valleys with large inlets and flanked on all side by the sea. It was a nice place to finish up our travels I think. From here we went back to Christchurch where we spent 4 days, meeting up with Paulina and Katharina again for the last time in this fair land. I'm sorry to say I can't actually remember the dates or days these things happened. It's somewhat of a blur. It was sometime very shortly in the past, the week before last I think.

Anyway, twas in Christchurch where our road trip ended. We returned Sam mk II on the second day of our arrival there. Oh! Now I know the date. We returned Sam Mk II on the 19th... I think. We spent a few days messing around Christchurch. Did some shopping (Well I did some standing around, Nils did some shopping). Had a rather muted night out. And then I believe it was last Tuesday myself and Nils went our separate ways. He went back up to Auckland and I headed for the most remote place I can think of, and probably the furthest away from home I'll ever be. That's for another post though. So I suppose I should tell you all something about Nils Welbers, my professional chauffeur for the last while. Well you know what is there to say. "You know what we say about Belgians in Germany?... They rape children" . I couldn't possibly sum up our trip in a blog post and I'm not going to try( you've been reading about it for weeks now, so you should know). We've been through a lot, battled our way through hordes of sand flies, solved problems with small people diplomatically, ran from angered sea lions(well that was me, but he did take pictures of it). Found every dead end in the country and also eaten in any Burger King we were within a few kilometres of. There's been Irish rebel songs sang(from my limited repertoire) and deep discussions about the merits of good step building.   An epic journey you will no doubt agree. Nils is now gone to Australia where he's bumming around for a while until his return to Germany to pursue a masters degree in step building, he's trying to get the highly sought after job of Chief Step Builder. I wish him all the best with it. So he's gone and I'm left having to carry my pack yet again. It's pretty tough, for a while it was hard to imagine what I'd do without him then it was all clear. I'm going to get a midget. And he shall carry my pack.

So, that brings to a close my blog entries about my travels in with Nils. I'm sure I've missed plenty tis hard to cram 5 weeks of travelling into a blog you know. I fear it's likely to be the most interesting part of my travels too. Hmmm... the internet cafe is seemingly closing now. I had intended to do another post tonight. Oh well. Tomorrow we move into the realm of me going to look for work and also my five days off from the world in Stewart island. Sounds good doesn't it. And yes I have nothing better to do than hang around in an internet cafe tomorrow. My bus doesn't go til something past 3. Must check that out.