Thursday February 17th .Christchurch to Hamden 300kms.

Road works on State Highway 1.

Such a busy road.

Today's the day that we pick up the van and start our Odyssey around South Island. We said goodbye to the nice Chinese ladies in reception, one of them gave me a hug! We had a taxi to take us to Ascot hire which is situated just south of the town centre. The guy there was very helpful and gave us a tour of the van and it's workings. It looks fine and is well equipped with all we should need complete with awning and table and chairs for use outside. We asked him if he had any ideas where we should spend our first night and he recommended a site at Moeraki. It's quite a way but he said that there is nowhere much of any interest in between Christchurch and there. I was first to drive it, it's automatic and goes well. We got out of Christchurch with no problems and set off down state highway 1 which will take us to Moeraki. I was quite surprised, at one point, to find the road undergoing major repairs and wondered why there was no diversion. Of course the answer is obvious! There are no minor roads that one could be diverted on.
We eventually pulled into a garage and got something for lunch from the little shop there. We intended doing a shop when we arrived so Nigel took the wheel and we carried on. When we got to the camp site at Moeraki we booked in and found that there was no camp shop and no shop in the village. Duh!! We asked where the nearest shop was and found that we had to go back to Hamden about 10kms up the way we had come. We went  back there and after getting the basic necessities Nigel noticed a sign for a camp site there. We went to have a look at it and it looked to be much better in as much as it was by the beach and much less commercialised than the one at Moeraki. So, back to Moeraki to get our money back and then back to Hamden to book in and park up for the night. It was certainly the right decision, the other site was on a hill and quite windy as well as being impersonal. The one at Hamden has just been taken over by Alex and his wife, a young Swiss couple, who have a young baby and are obviously trying to make a success of their venture. http://www.moerakibouldersholidaypark.co.nz/We were both pretty shattered so after supper we got ready for our first night in the van. The assembly of the bed is not easy and there is not a lot of room to manouver so Nigel took over that job! We couldn't find any way of switching on the lights and despite asking Alex and our neighbour to have a look with no success we climbed into bed by torchlight. The "bed" is by far from being the most comfortable that I have slept in but hopefully we shall get used to it.