Day 8 - Christchurch

The day started in a more leisurely fashion, we stopped by a breakfast place that Jeff (the hotel owner) had recommended.  It was called "Vics" and was quite delicious,
I had some eggs benedict, and Jen had some french toast.  We then set out for Arthur's Pass, which was about an hour and a half away, up in the mountains.  The drive
there was largely uneventful, we drove by Castle Rock (a large limestone formation) and the Cave Stream (which would visit on the return) until we finally arrived
at the small town of Arthur's Pass.  There was a rail station and a few stores, although from the work we saw being conducted on the railway on the way in, it's 
unlikely the train was running.

After overshooting the trail head, we turned around and went on first the Devil's Punchbowl hike, which was a rather steep hike up to the base of a local waterfall.
The weather was wonderful and the wind quite high, so the viewpoint was essentially a spray of white mist.  The beech forest surrounding the mountain was very pretty,
however.  Upon returning the valley level, we set out on another trail to the Bridal Vail falls.  After a short hike (once again with a lot of stairs) we reached the
far base of it (the upper pool was apparently not accessible by trail) we took some pictures (in particular, Ashley was photographing the local birds) before heading
back to the car.

From there, we backtracked to the Cave Stream, a 500m long limestone cave with a stream through it.  The ladies (wisely) decided to sit this one out, so Nick and I
headed down by ourselves.  I didn't have a wetsuit, so I was just wearing hiking pants and shorts for this.  We passed a sign instructing that if water was over
"waist high" at the entrance, you should not attempt the cave.  We immediately ended up in ice-cold water up to our necks, but as other people were coming out of the
cave, proceeded.  The departing groups all indicated they couldn't get over the first waterfall.

We did succeed in climbing over the first waterfall (the current was too strong to just walk through the water) but on the second one, Nick cleared it, but I was either
too short or too tired.  I tried several times to climb it, only to fall off and get swept down stream underwater, losing my light in the process.  Nick loaned me his
remaining light, but we decided to head back.  We backtracked through the cave, with Nick finally falling down... three feet from exiting the stream.  We hiked back up
the cliff and returned to the car.  We stopped briefly at Castle Rock to take a few pictures, but everyone was pretty tired.

Back in town, we showered and went to a local pizza joint we'd saw that morning, and had a good meal there.  After that, we hit the local bottle store and retired for
an evening of sorting through pictures and downing beers.