A Breath of Fresh Air

---

Pretty much as soon as we arrived in Christchurch, we started gearing up for some hiking/camping/kayaking that we are planning to do. Since we've been on the road for so long, it just wasn't practical to bring all our outdoor gear from home. We've also rented a small car for the next three months and our gear (new and old) has already exploaded throughout our new home. It will take us a bit before we get a new system down for organizing our stuff since it doesn't all have to fit in our packs anymore.

The most shocking thing we've found so far is the cost of everything. We're trying so hard not to convert the prices back into Chinese Yuan, and we remind ourselves that our budget for New Zealand is higher than it was for China and it's okay to spend a bit more...but not too much! The other big adjustment is that we can now flush TP down the toilet again, yay! It's amazing the things you get used to after 5 months of squat toilets and bad plumbing.

After getting all of the gear we thought we would need, we headed out to Arthur's Pass National Park which is about 2 hours from Christchurch. Initially we had planned to hike into Goat's pass and camp there for the night, but the Department of Conservation (DOC) office strongly advised against this as they were expecting gale force winds and rain. So instead we hiked up to Bealy Spur Hut, which was about 5-6km in. Super nice and we had the use of the hut all to ourselves for the night.

Just like to say thanks to our friends in Darfield who were kind enough to let us stay with them for a few days and show us around to Castle Hill and the Cave Stream. And thanks again to our friends in Christchurch for receiving a couple of packages for us and for letting us stay there for a few nights.

Next up: Kayaking the Abel Tasman!

---