Day 105: Drive from Christchurch to Abel Tasman National Park (Marahau)

Tuesday, March 14

We all woke up between 7:30 and 8 and made some breakfast. Doug from New Hampshire was in the kitchen too so we ate breakfast with him.

Once we were done eating, we boiled eggs to take with us, cleaned our dishes and packed up so we'd be out of the room by checkout time.

We still weren't exactly sure when Lauren's bag would arrive, but we knew we'd get to Abel Tasman after dark. That meant we wouldn't hike to the campsite we had reserved for the night, a few kilometers into the trail. The i-Site in Christchurch had a DOC worker, so we went there to see what we could do. The DOC guy was so helpful! After explaining that we were waiting on a piece of lost luggage he pulled up our reservation and changed it. He couldn't refund us, but he booked us into to closest campground just incase we arrived before dusk. If we couldn't arrive before dusk, our plan was to stay in the town at the start of the trail and combine our first two days into one (I had planned them short because my first few days hiking were so hard - and because those were the campgrounds open - but Sam and Lauren are tougher than I am!)

After sorting out everything for Abel Tasman, we went to the car rental office in the CBD to get the proper paperwork filled out to allow me to drive, and to make sure we could drop the car off outside of their hours when we come back through town in a few days.

Once all our errands were done, we walked around. There were nice pedestrian areas, public artworks, and a church that was completely in shambles (I later learned when I came back to Christchurch with my mom, it hasn't really been worked on since the earthquake because they can't decide if they should tear it down and start over or restore it from what's there).

As we were wandering, we found out Lauren's luggage was arriving on a flight at 2:30, so we wandered over to the (free) museum for a bit. While we were there I hid in a quiet stairway to make us a reservation in Marahau (it would be dark and late when we arrived, so we didn't want to hike and find a parking place at night). We were able to get a cabin for the night at Old MacDonald Holiday Park.

After quickly wandering through the museum, we got some dumplings for lunch. The dumpling place was right next to a gourmet cheese shop. The cheeses were so expensive! Some were $100 NZD a kilo. Granted, a kilo is over two pounds, but some had to come out to $50 American dollars a pound. I like cheese, but not that much.

With yummy dumplings in our bellies, we drove to the airport. Lauren thought it would be easier to get her bag as soon as she could than to wait for them to bring it to us. We all agreed. Shortly after arriving, she got her bag!

Sam and Lauren had bought matching shark buffs for us all to wear! It was such a nice surprise and they'll be so fun to wear while we hike.

With our shark buffs on, we started the drive to Marahau. Lauren and Sam had also brought a box my mom had mailed them with cards from my family, a new Spot Tracker (mine stopped working on the Whanganui River section), and dark chocolate. It was really nice to read the letters. I read them to Sam and Lauren so they could enjoy them too.

We all took turns driving and at some point we stopped for gas. I wanted some coffee, so I went into the store to get some. They had coffee that had been sitting around all day like gas stations in the US. I was so excited. I've never had better coffee than I've had in New Zealand, but sometimes I just want crappy American coffee. The closest you can get the that here is an Americano. Long story short, this crappy coffee really was a treat!

The last hour or so of the drive was in the dark. The closer we got to Marahau, the windier the road got. Sam handled the windy roads like a pro. When we got to Old MacDonalds, the owner had kindly left a note on the office door telling us where to go (we had told them we'd be getting in late). The cabin was amazing! It had a little kitchenette outside and 4 beds. Plenty of space for us all to do our packing for tomorrow.

Lauren's bag got a cut in it while the airport was handling it, so we tried to use our crafty skills to patch it. They brought some amazing tape with them - gorilla tape I think - but it was black and her pack was green. I gave her some of my really thin and green cuban fiber patch tape to cover the black patch with. It blended into the backpack a little better at least.

After packing and patching, it was time for bed. We wanted to start as early as we could tomorrow since we were planning on combining two days of hiking.