My brother and I at the Trevi Fountain.

Entrance to the Pantheon.

There are 2 Popes per square kilometre in the Vatican City.

I’d like to go back to see the Colosseum and take a proper look around the Vatican. That might have to wait for a while though.

Someone at the SRU hadn’t thought their cunning plan all the way through.

Pretty good game. I’m off to the Scotland / Australia game next week.

When I was in Dunedin, I’d hoped to see a Super 14 game at Carisbrook but due to the schedule, this was not to be. Fortunately, the Crusaders were playing at home the day after we arrived in Christchurch and there were still plenty of tickets available!

The game itself was a little scrappy until the last 20 minutes or so (Wellington won 24-30), but as a spectacle I’ve never seen anything like it at a rugby match. With cheerleaders, horsemen dressed as knights and a military helicopter landing to deliver the match ball, it was more like the build-up to an American football game than anything I’ve seen at Murrayfield!

As I still had a couple of free days before my flight, I decided to hire a car, drive up the coast and spend a night in Kaikoura with some of the people I’d met in the Deep South. One of the main attractions in Kaikoura is swimming with dolphins. Unfortunately, despite the weather in Kaikoura being brilliant (Christchurch had been a bit cold and wet for a few days!) the swell was bad enough that no boats were leaving the harbour. But the weather on-shore was good, and there was a hot-tub and plenty of beer at our hostel.

I can certainly think of worse ways to spend an afternoon!

I arrived in Sydney by bus on Thursday evening, and spent the weekend catching up with most of (Sorry, Laura and Bryony) the rest of the OzIntro group who decided to settle there. The highlight of the weekend was the “Opening” game of the Rugby League World Cup between Australia and New Zealand on Sunday night. As a neutral fan, the game wasn’t anywhere near as close as I’d hoped, but it was exciting to see two of the best teams in the world fighting it out against each other! Australia ended up dominating the game and ran out winners, 30 – 6. The next afternoon I flew down to Avalon to be met again by my friend Meg, who’s been kind enough to put me up for a while even though she’s currently in the process of selling her house!

So now that the East coast is finished I have to get back to the more serious business of finding a job and somewhere more permanent to live. I saw a few promising-looking recruitment adverts while I was coming down the coast, hopefully I’ll have some success down here!