Fairlie

From Kaikoura, I headed back to Christchurch to reunite with SR, who was finally back from the season in McMurdo. We hung around town for a few days, wandering around...

...and waiting to get our wheels for this trip up and running. Another Ice comrade keeps a car in Christchurch that had broken down just before he last deployed. In exchange for getting it towed, fixed, and re-upping the warrant of fitness and registration, SR and I get to use this beauty for our New Zealand explorations. It's not really a beauty (e.g., where the passenger window button should be the whole panel is ripped out, wires exposed!) but it runs and what we paid to get it running and legit is WAY less than what we would have paid to rent even the cheapest car for the next 10 weeks. So as long as there are no major breakdowns, the Mint Machine here is our ride.

The first place we took it was to Fairlie, where South Pole friends A & E live and have built this gorgeous house in the woods:

We spent a few days there helping them chip and clear the trees A was felling to help the fir plantation they're in look a little less...organized...and open up the amazing view beyond.

We also made a bunch of yummy meals together, including sushi and pizza.

And if that weren't all great enough, A & E took us on a field trip to nearby Lake Tekapo...

...where we watched the sun set...

...and waited for some of those stars to come out, which Tekapo is particularly famous for (partly due to the observatory that sits there atop Mt. John. But the moon is nearly full at the moment, rising as the sun was setting, so that pretty much dominated the skies. Gorgeous, nonetheless.