Traveling to Christchurch and onto Fairlie

Christchurch in ruins

...more so...

Relocation of businesses

Souvenir of Switzerland

Sam on bench

February 9:

We leave our Greymouth accommodations around 9:30 and head out for a very long drive to the East Coast city of Christchurch.  We hope to be there for lunch, but first we will have to go over the Southern Alps and cross through something called Arthur's Pass. We make our way and stop at a rest area in the mountains and notice a striking change in the weather temperature-COLD!.  We pull out our thrift store coats and bundle up for the remainder of the drive.  We arrive in Christchurch and since the conversation has been all centered around food (Chinese food to be exact) we take the first opportunity to get lunch.  It turns out this was a good choice - all of the tables are filled with Chinese people eating lunch.  Signs of a truly good restaurant!  We order our food and eat a hearty meal.  Afterward, we stop by a grocery store to stock up on food for the remaining days. (We have heard that food prices rise as we get closer to the south end of the island)  When we are finished, it is nearly 3:00 and we head into Christchurch.  The city is still a construction mess from the earthquakes of only a year ago.  We have heard that they still have numerous aftershocks and the citizens are being a bit traumatized.  The downtown area is blocked off by a huge chain-link fence, but we can peek through and see the massive destruction to the city.  They have set up temporary shops out of ship containers - which is totally cool - and we stroll through the open shops for a while to stretch our legs.  We pick up a few items for Sam's impending birthday the following day before getting back into the car and heading further south to Fairlie.  We drive for another 3-4 hours before arriving at our Top 10 campground.  The office is nearly closed, but we arrive, get unpacked and settle into our spacious accommodations.  No kidding....we have two full bedrooms a huge living rooms, TV, free wireless internet and a largish kitchen where we prepare our dinner of sauteed shrimp.  We can't seem to settle into our beds before 12:00, but we manage to sleep in our cozy beds!