New Zealand Part One

We arrived in Christchurch in the afternoon and enjoyed both the redeveloped downtown and full on Autumn (on April 1) in their beautiful botanical gardens. After the earthquake in the early 2000s, the city planners jumped on the misfortunes of the town to make it into one of the most livable and affordable cities in New Zealand. It went from plain Jane to pretty hip. The restaurant market rivals anything in Seattle and actually surpasses it in someways.

The next morning we headed out to pick up our accomodations for the next 20 days.(campervan) With a bit of fear and trepidation we slowly exited the parking lot and made our way to the grocery store for provisions. 

Next step… hit the roads. The rental agent suggested we loop our way through the foothills to the first beach town to rest our heads and see the smallest of penguins in the world. They are so cute!

We expected to see a bunch of sheep that afternoon, but instead were greeted by a ton of cows, go figure. New Zealand is also known for hedges, boy they weren’t exaggerating.

Day 2 

We were starting to get comfortable driving and visited a beach with one of a kind boulders and then on to van camping at a beach. We were beginning to think this van life might the ticket for all future adventures!

The next day we passed through the town of Oamaru which for all appearances seemed very colonial until we turned the corner and discovered the  coolest collection of steampunk contraptions. Yes, the kiwis have an interesting sense of humor. Shortly after Oamaru we came to Dunedin, another colonial looking town and a good place to do laundry.

Next stop, an albatross sanctuary. They are amazing birds. Wing spans up to 3 meters and weighing 30 kgs. The chics weigh 5 kgs a couple of weeks after breaking out and look like a big puff ball of feathers. Once they are mature they live full time at sea and only return to mate. Last remarkable fact – they can fly up to 1000 kilometers a day, 600+ miles.

The next days were filled with hikes to lighthouses, beaches, waterfalls and the furtherest sourhern, super windy, point of NZ.  And oh yeah, we found the sheep and it appears there are more of them than kiwis, well at least on the south island.

We missed out on Milford Sound as I cracked a molar and needed to see a dentist in Queenstown, the most expensive city in NZ and likely the most visited by foreigners, ugh, not our favorite stopover, although the drive along Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy is quite remarkable. And the lighting was beautiful.

Since this is my first stab at writing the blog I might be returning to editor and chief. Otherwise the next post will be heading north to Mt. Cook and then to the West coast and the South Island.

Stay tuned…

Jim and Michelle