Day Three - Christchurch to Puke NZ

Day 3

Woke up with a hangover from clubbing, but got going at a decent time. We ate breakfast at a place right by the hotel. I got eggs, toast, mushrooms, and sausage. I asked for sunny side up, but they evidently don’t know what that is, so I got them over easy. No matter, it was still good. Christchurch has a lot of immigrants, and a really cool vibe to the town. The houses were not like I expected them to be. Very hard to explain, but it was a very cool town. We got a cab, with a very friendly and interesting cabbie and picked up our rental vehicle. A Britz camper van, two small beds, microwave, fridge, shower, toilet, etc. Pretty nice. The representative was cute and had a great accent. She hooked us up with a free extra blanket. After that, basically our whole day consisted of driving form Christchurch to Puke, and stopping about every five or ten minutes to take pictures of the awesome beauty surrounding us at every second. Streams, waterfalls, snow capped mountains, tropical plants, cattle, horses, sheep, and even emu are all around us, all the time. It is unbelievable here. We stopped at Arthur’s Pass NP and had lunch. I had meat pies, one with mince and cheese, and the other with lamb. Very good, I’ve never really had a meat pie, but they seem to be really popular here. Stopped at a supermarket, got some fruits, nuts, herbs, meat, snacks, etc. for the next couple days. At sunset we pulled over and spent about a half hour taking pictures of the mountains with a bright full moon right above them, it was absolutely awesome. Hopefully they turn out… At that point, the sun was down, so we drove and stopped when it got dark at the first campground, a small one in a place called Pukekura. Hooked up the van to power, set up our charging station, music, etc., read a chapter in my book, drank some wine, saw a goat, and went to bed.