We woke up very toasty this morning, in fact it was a little bit too hot so I jumped out of bed to turn the heater down then started making breakfast. Beans and eggs on toast! It felt great waking up in our camper van and without looking out of the windows it was easy to forget we were in the middle of a holiday park. After breakfast we just lazed about watching tv in bed and planned what to do today. As it was so freezingnomously cold outside it made perfect sense to go shopping for warm clothes, but we weren't sure where would be cheap. 

I stood outside and then noticed a small fluffy dog sniffing about our camper van, I bent down and fussed the cute thing then her owner appeared. We got chatting and I asked her if she could recommended anywhere to shop for us. She said she didn't know the area that well but told us to look in the Warehouse. Then she said she was only staying on the site due to what happened in Christchurch. At this point I wasn't sure what she meant and I didn't want to be rude by asking her so I thanked her then got back in the van. It wasn't until later when we were driving around trying to find the Warehouse that I realised what the lady meant. All of the roads leading into the centre of Christchurch were closed due to reconstruction. It took me a moment until I remembered there had been a huge earth quake right here not that long ago so obviously a lot of homes and buildings had been destroyed! We saw some of the evidence as we drove past a few empty buildings and a church being rebuilt. 

Finally we managed to find the Warehouse, it was quite good in there, similar to a big Matalan shop. Chris had picked up a leaflet for another shop offering up to 70% discounts on outdoor clothing so he didn't want to buy anything until we visited there first. We ended up driving for about an hour or more trying to find this place, and it wasn't due to my map reading skills! When we found it there wasn't much in there and even the discounted stuff wasn't cheap! They did have really nice sheep skin boots though for only $90, so I bought a pair and wore them straight away, it was like walking on a soft fur rug! 

We drove back to the shopping centre straight away and went back into Warehouse. Chris got some gloves, a really nice fleece jacket, a hat and after a little persuasion, a pair of slippers too. I can't believe he's never worn a pair of slippers before, he doesn't reckon he will wear them but I think he will lol. I got a hat, some insoles for my boots, slippers, and at last I have a travel hair dryer. One of the most important accessories we bought were our travel coffee mugs for those long cold drives we have ahead.

It was getting late and our plan to drive straight to Kaikoura was out of the window. Chris wasn't sure how the roads would be in the dark so we decided to stop on the side of the road at 6:30pm and stay there for the night. We tuned the tv in, cooked up a nice hot dinner and jumped into bed early. Chris like normal wants to set off before sunrise so we need an early night. As it got later into the evening the temperature began to drop even more. Chris filled up the goon bag with hot water and we used that to keep us warm.