Christchurch

We started off our journey with a bunch of random, mildly funny difficulties. My watch/pedometer reset itself around 5:15am... so it was lucky I got up before the alarm, otherwise I never would have woken up. I'd like to point out that the only way to reset the thing is with a pen.

When I had gotten out of the shower this morning, Laura was dismantling my tent. I told her about some weird static electricity within the tent and dove into the tent to demonstrate. Only, she had deflated my mattress and I hit the floor, hard!

On the bus to the airport, Laura broke the zipper on her bag.

At the airport, Laura got paged, which is always a scary moment. It turned out they only needed to inform her that they were moving her seat. By one seat.

Anyways, we made it to New Zealand without further incident. Immigration was easy and friendly, but biosecurity was a bit intense. They were completely unpacking some people's bags. Anyways, before you get to the unpacking, or the x-ray, if you're lucky (which we were), you have to fill out a card listing any goods you have to declare and if you've been near animals or if you've been hiking, etc. The official who checked my passport and declaration card was tickled to learn that I had a pet hedgehog. It was cute.

After the airport, we checked into our hostel and were delighted to learn that our room has hooks for hanging our packs. Hurrah! (Bedbugs are an issue here) After that, we got some dinner at an Irish pub. I had cider and bangers and mash. Laura got probably the best veggie pizza I've ever had. It had huge carrots and potatoes, which was weird, but tasty.

Now we're home and ready for bed. We're leaving for Queenstown early tomorrow morning. This is only a stopover...