Thursday evening. We are sitting on the deck at the backpacker we have been staying at for the last week, eating cheese and butter sandwiches along with sauteed onions and steamed broccoli and spinach. The last few days have been busy; we’ve managed to set our itinerary for our big tickets with the travel agent, lose (and subsequently find) my credit card, go out dancing with some fellow Polies (we learned the Lindy Hop, and what we lacked in skill we made up for with jumping), and bought two cheap bikes and a tent. That’s our plan for the next week or so, to bike around the South Island at whatever pace we want, and set up camp whenever we’re tired.

I packed up the last of my leftover South Pole stuff and sent it off via the APO at the Clothing Distribution Center here, so we’re now down to our traveling weight – a backpack each, and a mostly empty shoulder bag. Kiell went to the Centre of Contemporary Art for the day, a gallery with modern local art packed closely into sliding metal frames. It’s been drizzly and damp here, so we’ve been hoping that things will clear up in time for us to head out by bike tomorrow. We’ll wake up early and head over to the travel agency to buy our tickets, and then we’ll be off!

We’ve put up an album of pictures from Christchurch, you can view it here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mradyfist/Christchurch#