Mandeville North

New Zealand really wanted to get rid of us, or at least the sandflys made us think so. As soon as the sun rose behind the mountains and it got pleasantly warm in the tent, they were all up again swarming between the tent layers, around the entrance or just chilled on top of the tent. It was a shame because instead of enjoying breakfast on our beach towels at the lake surrounded by mountains we had to flee into the car. And the most annoying thing about it is that none else seems to have this problem. It's as if all the sandflies in the wider area collectively decide that we are the target. The 2 other tents at the camping were totally fine and the guy next to us almost couldn't believe it when he saw the sandflies around us and our tent. So apparently we just smell really good, as does our tent, and our car, apparently... After hastily packing our stuff we drove off to brush our teeth somewhere else. We just wanted to get out of there.

On the way back to Christchurch we stopped at the Castle Hill Limestones. A fun walk among humongous boulders. Like the elephant boulders we saw some time ago, but then even better. We had a typical New Zealand pie somewhere for lunch, and had a few other quick stops with not so noteworthy viewpoints. Arriving in Christchurch, we still had quite a few things to do before our flight. Grocery shopping, a stop at the farmacy, laundry, and a much needed hairdresser for Machiel. Especially the laundry at the campsite became an issue when it just didn't want to dry quickly enough. At least no sandflies though. In the meantime we made a wraps dinner and booked the transportation for the Fiji islands. After a shower it was time for bed. The weird thing was that we didn't know if this was the last time we would sleep in this tent. For the next 3.5 months we most likely won't sleep in any tent and seeing how the front zipper slowly stops working and the tent is more than 6 years old, it would be an easy way to save some space and weight. And while Machiel can think about this very rationally, Susanne struggles more as this became our home over the past months.Read more