Styx River

After 12.5 hours on our "economy skycouch" which was more like 5 minutes of cuddling in a recliner; we figured out how to get some sleep. It wasn't a problem for heather after being mostly awake for the previous 24 hours, and Chad taking Benadryl and melatonin, we arrived in Auckland mostly rested.

Word of advice for NZ customs, bring clean shoes, or don't declare that you've worn them outside. after an extra 10 minutes of NZ biosecurity cleaning our shoes we were rushing to the domestic terminal for our quick hour flight to Christchurch.

Fortunately we made it, and our luggage nearly beat us to our carousel. Heather thought the taxi driver had an assistant as we were walking up as he got out of the right side of the car to help us with our things, however that is the side of the car you drive on in NZ.

A few minutes later we arrive to pick up our spaceship beta 2s. After a quick check in and driving "test" (which was 4 left turns(the easy ones)), the guy told us to grab a couple camping chairs and table for no cost and be on our way.

We made our way to the Christchurch botanical gardens with Heather navigating and clenching the door handle around corners. After a quick stop for tea and coffee, with angry seagulls, We found the heather garden among other interesting flowers,foliage and trees.

After lunch we headed to "The Warehouse" (Walmart) for some towels and a SIM card for our phones. Then on to the grocery store to stock up our 10L fridge for a few days.

We arrived at the North South Holiday Park before most other campers (and unscathed from Chad's first driving experience on the "other" side of the road) so we were able to get a fairly nice spot with a picnic table and not have to wait on taking a nice, hot, 6 minute shower.

After cooking some makeshift fajitas for dinner on our van stove we are counting down the minutes for the sun to go down so we can finally get some great horizontal sleep.Read more