We arrived at the security gate off the plane around 11.30pm and were out of the airport, into a taxi and at our accommodation by 12.10pm. Speedy passport control and security at Christchurch!
We'd booked an Airbnb place to stay before picking up the van the next day. We ended up staying with Judith and her husband Chris who have two rooms which they let out through Airbnb as they live close to the airport and get a lot of people looking to stay the night of an early morning flight or late arrival one. We chatted with them and another couple who'd stayed too and Chris then took us to Jucy rentals to pick up our van!
We headed into Jucy and were greeted by a young northerner who was living and working in NZ. She went through the van, we signed the papers and bobs your uncle we'd got a van for the next 33 days. I say van, convertible (not roof top style!) car more like (Toyota Hiace). So Andy took to the helm and steered her down to town for a look around.
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| Please welcome Jules Fearn to the blog... |
Christchurch is still very much recovering from the two major earthquakes it had in 2010/2011 and the city is being slowly restored. We were not prepared to see so much of the aftermath of the earthquakes as I suppose we assumed that in 3yrs they'd have rebuilt and moved on. Actually 3yrs is not a great deal of time when rebuilding a city and proofing the new buildings for years to come. There was a small shopping area made out of shipping containers which looked pretty funky in amongst the old, new and dilapidated buildings.
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| Shipping container shops, pretty cool idea but fingers crossed the city is back up and running in no time |
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| Save the current Cathedral, or not? That's the question locals are being asked. |
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| Some parts of the city are back up and running, including the tram which covers just a short distance |
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| Cardboard Cathedral, unsure if it's 100% cardboard as it was closed for a function, I'm guessing not! |
After we got our bearings we headed to the shops to fill the van with food. 'Big shop' done and we headed to a campsite in town for the night before heading South the next day. Staying in a van and paying for a pitch at a campsite costs the same as getting a double room in a hostel so we certainly were not cost cutting but loving the opportunity to be on the move whenever we wanted.
Night at the campsite done (odd places really, mix of families, school children, travellers and permanent residents in a temporary community) and we headed off to Akaroa on the East coast of Christchurch. The place is well known to have a French influence but they missed out on finding the place all those years ago by just a few days to the Brits- sorry France, our flag was here first.
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| The beautiful bay at Akaroa |
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| Restored lighthouse which was bought for $1 and bought to town to save it from ruin |
Beautiful town settled in a small bay with lush green countryside. Not much for us to see but we had a walk around the bay, went up the lighthouse and had a coffee.
We stayed the night at our first DoC campsite. These are the Department of Conservation sites which are managed by the government. They provide a 3 tier service from basic (just a toilet and sometimes sink) to fully serviced(like a camping ground with showers etc). Most of the ones on the South Island were basic ones but a toilet was really all that we needed for a nights sleep.
We followed the map and driving in the dark ended up heading down a long track to what was our campsite - Pioneers Peak. It was now pitch black and we were the only people in what felt like the middle of nowhere, so I of course started to picture some hideous scenes from an American slasher film... Luckily we made it through the night without being maimed by large animals or serial killers.
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| Andy cooking our first out in the open van meal, of course it was steak |
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| And he seemed quite pleased with himself |
So we continued on towards Mt Cook.
The drive to Mount Cook was around 3hrs and it was a great intro to the NZ roads (for us both even though I'd been to the north island in 2007 with Mrs Turner who was a Wilbur way back then) and more importantly the spectacular South Island scenery we'd heard so much about. We were totally taken aback by the vista in front of us as the snowy peaks were being rendered by the afternoon sun.
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| The long road ahead... Not a bad days drive |
We dropped by Lake Tekapo for lunch and an afternoon stroll up Mt John. A beautiful spot on a perfect day, picture postcard New Zealand. We walked up to the top of Mt John, not a long climb but quite a steep one! To find a cafe at the top- hurrah... So we stopped for a breather, coffee and photo shoot.
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| Around half way we bumped into some snow - hello snow |
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| None at the top of here though, just a nice spot to sit and have a photo |
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| Lake Tekapo |
We had lunch down the mountain from the back of Jules Fearn looking across at the little church on the lake.
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| Andy trying out his wildlife photographer of the year entry - gigantic NZ ducks |
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| He doesn't do a bad job of taking photos |
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| Although I reckon I beat him hands down on the swing... |
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| or maybe not! |
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| One of the locals told us that this is the most photographed church in NZ, so it would be a shame for you all not to see it too! |
Final leg to Mt Cook and we arrived just in time to set up for the night and cook dinner.
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| Final, final stop to take in our surroundings |
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| Jules quite likes the view too |
Again another DoC campsite but this one, albeit basic, had a kitchen area and flushing loos- of course both of these wouldn't appear in a horror film so no need to worry here!
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| This bird is a Kea and quite common to these parts but hard to find, apparently! We spotted this one on the top of the information centre :) |
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| Our campsite for the night |
A cold evening and start the next morning. The site is nestled at the base of a few snowy mountains and it takes a while for the sun to get over the top of them and heat us up below. We'd decided to follow some of the trails around the mountain so made a pack-up and filled the flask with tea before setting off (this being appropriate behaviour now I'm 30).
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| En route to the glacier at the foot of the mountain. No climbing for us, this is treacherous territory |
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| Our $12 flask was the best accessory in NZ, like a boy scout we were well prepared |
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| Andy climbed across to the other side whilst I wimped out at jumping over the river to get there... So this is his selfie evidence |
We walked for around 2hrs to get to a glacier at the foot of the mountain and found a frozen lake with icebergs too! A pretty spectacular place to be :)
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| Ta-dah! Behind moi is a frozen lake and if you look even closer there's the glacier
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| Oh and there's the crazy French man who went onto the frozen lake and proclaimed 'I am Jesus', well who am I to
argue?
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| Back and time for more tea and a slap-up van meal. Finally somewhere that wearing walking trousers and a fake North Face fleece makes sense.
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See ya' Mount Cook, next stop the Edinburgh of the south - Dunedin.
