How is it going, MATES ??? Obviously I made it to the land of the austr - aliens ! But I think I owe you some words for the pic's below, I didn't mean not to write for 2 weeks, I've just been to lazy, sorry about that! Alrighty, where did I stop the last time? Dunedin...it took me 2 days just to learn how to pronounce that name.....went to the chocolate factory over there, I loved the smell of the chocolate, but the tour was a waste of money, as I've seen how they do it when I was in first grade, so I just went in there for the free samples, but they didn't hand out many, I should have known it, what did I expect of a city with scottish roots ??? I went to the Otago Peninsula and saw lots of wildlife over there....many birds like oystercatcher, shags, white herons and pukekos.....penguins coming in from the sea and walking back home to their chicks in the late afternoon, fur seals hanging out on rocks, and as it was very windy we saw an albatros flying over our heads- it was huge!!! You might think what's the buzz about all those animals lately, why is she constantly freaking out about them, but it's just so different and special to see them in their natural environment ( at least to me by now). I decided to go back south again to see the Gatlins Coast ( southeast coastline of the south island ) aswell, and it became one of my favorite places in NZ. Even the weather seemed to fit exactly for what we did...when we went to see amazing beaches the sun was shining, and when we drove to the rugged cliffs of Nugget Point it started to rain hard and we had a little hail (!) storm with lightning just to create the right atmosphere ( when we reached the lighthouse the sun came out again, of course ). And we spotted a lot of wildlife aswell ( sorry I just can't help it ), sealions lying on the beach right under the sand dune we were standing on, just amazing!!!! I didn't have much time left after that, I went on to Lake Tekapo ( the lake with all those lupine- flowers and the small church in front of it ) for a short stopover and then on to Christchurch, where I spend my last days in NZ, sitting on the square with the old church on the one side and some modern buildings on the other, many cafes and a musician singing now and then reminded my of Leipzig in the last days of June. I saw some christmas decoration somewhere, but I couldn't convince myself that they didn't just forget to tear it down after last christmas. Anyway, I left the land of the flat possums and headed towards the land of round possums, arrived in Cairns on Dec, 1st. Did snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef of course and TOOK TON'S OF PICS....... of all this colourful fish, big and small ones (whose made strange noises while sucking at the corals), those amazing CORALS , and not to forget of that huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge grey fish that appeared somewhere between the corals underneath me and made my heart stop beating for a second before I headed back towards the others without being able to stop giggling about my own foolishness....the pics are all saved in my head, took them only with my eyes, sorry guys!