"What's the difference between bread and toast?" - Becky

In Becky’s defense, this article might help explain her confusion: http://www.heapsofsheeps.com/2009/05/breads-identity-crisis-or-marketing-scam/.

SO. We have been back in Christchurch for about three weeks, posted up at the Vandertie’s house. Although I’ve had plenty of time to blog, I am writing this on the morning of our departure. We are leaving to explore the South Island for the next few months. The car is packed full and I think we have enough food in there to survive for a few years. We will be doing lots of camping (we practiced setting up our tent ha), tramping, and wandering around enjoying the sights, stopping as we please. Almost too good to be true, but yet it is.  Now to briefly recap the last few weeks before I have even more adventures to write about…

Upon our arrival in Christchurch, we were greeted with an earthquake.  A little dramatic I’d say, but an appropriate welcome into Ch’Ch. Most of you know that Christchurch has experienced several large earthquakes in the past year, starting in September 2010. The 22 February 2011 caused extensive damage to the city, essentially shutting down the city center and red-zoning (meaning that these areas are unlivable – cannot rebuild) lots of neighborhoods. There was also a large earthquake in June 2011, but things were relatively quiet until 23 December 2011 when there were two more large earthquakes, around 6.0 in magnitude. Since then the fault has been pretty active, and most days since we have been here, we have felt an earthquake. The largest one we have felt is a 5.48 on 2 January, not a great way to start off a new year. Honestly, after a while you get used to it, but it is a bit unsettling… This site records all the earthquakes in the Christchurch area: http://www.canterburyquakelive.co.nz/.

Camp Bay

New Years Eve was pretty low-key for us. We went to a bar for a bit, and then to the park for a band and some fireworks. Almost missed actually being there for midnight because we got lost, just wandering around in the dark for an hour.

We spent the first few days of the year very productively – going to the beach. Ah, the luxury of not having a job. We still can’t believe that we have nowhere to be, and can wander about as we please. Usually I am the sort of person who is quite bored if I have nothing to do, but that kind of boredom doesn’t exist when you are exploring New Zealand for the first time. 

Our friend Sarah (she sometimes lives at the Vandertie’s, which is how we know her) decided to be a hut warden for a week, and we thought hmmm maybe that’s something we’d like to do in the future. So we accompanied her to (what we thought would be) a short training session…5 hours later, we were equipped with the knowledge of how to use the radio (Dad, you’d be so proud) and how to stir long-drop toilets with sticks… Let me briefly explain the Hut thing – so, DOC (Department of Conservation) operates a huge network of about 900 huts. These huts cost either $15 or $5 per night, or they’re free, depending on the quality of the hut, I suppose. Usually it is just an honor system whether people pay or not, but at the most popular huts during peak season they sometimes have volunteer hut wardens to make sure people are paying and to do some cleaning. The huts usually come equipped with sleeping mats and cooking benches (that's what they call countertops over here), a stove for heat, a "toilet" of some sort, and some have running water from a rain tank.

This kea bit me on the finger after this was taken

 The next day after the training, the three of us drove up to Arthur’s Pass (beautiful.) and began our first big tramp to Hawdon Hut. The three-hour walk in was fairly easy and fairly beautiful. We started the tramp off right by missing the track, crossing a river, and carefully climbing over an electric fence.  River crossings can actually be really dangerous, as rivers rise very fast in the rain, and it is sometimes tricky to tell how deep and fast the water is - this is actually the dorkiest sentence I have ever written. But no worries, we had Sarah with us and she is a pro-tramper, and we mostly were crossing small side streams. On our way back out, we actually did find the track and take it the whole way out – bush-bashing was much more fun anyway. Our two nights at the hut were wonderfully relaxing, except for the sandflies swarming our ankles and the lovely snoring men and sleeptalking children we shared a room with. All part of the experience. It is such a nice feeling to cook dinner over your little gas campstove, play cards and chat until it gets dark, and then go to bed listening to kiwi birds calling to each other. During the day we spent in the area, we walked up to an area called Walker Pass, which was an amazing walk and amazingly steep, but worth the views!

Hawdon Hut

We returned to the Vandertie’s house to find no Rick and Lynn, no dogs, and no floor, as they had gone on holiday and began some construction on the house. We found ourselves living in a construction zone for a couple weeks, hopping over new tiles and climbing through windows to avoid messing up the new floors. We have been hanging around Christchurch for so long to await the arrival of some friends. The 4UR boys – Drew, Zach, and Les – arrived at 3 AM on the 14^th. They came here solely to fly fish, and wouldn’t you know that none of their fly rods made it to Christchurch with them. Luckily they turned up a few days later. It was such a great week with them here. We showed them around the city, introduced them to Amanda and Shannon and spent a day with them at a beautiful little beach called Camp Bay, and took them to Arthur’s Pass for their first fishing trip – which involved 2 hours of driving down a gravel road with 5 of us packed into the Vitz (lucky me I was in the one in the middle back) which bottoms out on the tiniest of pebbles, not the greatest off-road vehicles. This road also had a grand total of 18 gates that we had to open, and the final on-foot descent to the river was so steep and prickly that the boys filmed us walking/falling down the hill, it was quite a sight I’m sure.

Luckily the boys’ time in Christchurch coincided with the World Busker’s Festival. Busker = street performer. Think comedy, acrobatics, and magic. We spent a whole day and night enjoying the different acts. Definitely something well worth going to if you’re ever here in January.  And now the boys have found a car of their own (needless to say it is 4WD) and they’ve headed off to fish their way around New Zealand. Becky and I are off to do our own thing, but we will be meeting up with them along the way. Maybe they will even let us fish a time or two! 

Although we have been here since November, it feels like our trip is just now starting. In fact, we are trying to get on the road now, so I don't have time to put up pictures, I will have to do it another time... or check out Becky's blog called Walking on a Dream (link to it on the right side of the page) for more pictures and stories.