Christchurch

Wow, what at a day! Our first real taste of New Zealand. We were both up early with the time change. I was out of bed at 4am and went to the comfort station to write in my blog. They had really nice facilities that included a large kitchen/lounge with paid wifi. The morning was spent organizing the van and picking up a few more items at the store.

We decided to head out of Christchurch today and start exploring. We had found a local hike in the Port Hills and were planning on heading on to Akaroa afterward for the night. On the way there we stopped in New Brighton. New Brighton is a suburb of Christchurch (I think) right on the coast. It has a long beach coast line and a pier the juts out that we did a quick walk on. They also had a really cool library right on the waterfront with great views of the ocean. Such a good idea!

After a quick, stop we continued on to Taylors Mistake for a short 3 hour hike. We had our first taste of the windy narrow roads in New Zealand. We drove up and down some crazy switchbacks. I am starting to get used to driving on the left side but it was a little nerve racking at points! The trail was a beautiful walk that followed the coast past old military sites. The scenery was beautiful with epic sweeping coast lines, cliffs and grassy hills. The area leading up to the hike was dotted with cute colourful cottages by the water and nice houses up in the hills among the trees. We got great views of the harbour and ships passing by. It was a really nice easy walking loop.

On return we hopped back in the car and set out to Akaroa. We had plotted the most direct route that was supposed to take us over the mountain but we came upon road closure after road closure. It turns out the summit pass has been closed since the earthquakes. This pass goes along a volcanic crater and it supposed to provide wondrous views. We eventually had to drive back towards town and take the long way around. This way took us through a really long tunnel and past a quaint port town called Lyttleton. The drive was amazing. It was winding and colourful and followed the coast. I wish I was driving a little sports car with all the curves. The speed limits were all over the place from 30Km/hr to 100km/hr but on average we only could do about 50km/hr. The van really struggles to get up above 90km/hr. I basically slowed down to let everyone pass me because I couldn’t accelerate fast enough out of turns. 2hrs later we arrived at our destination.

In New Zealand they have what is call freedom camping which is a designated parking spot that you park at for free overnight. You have to be careful though you can get a big ticket if you park in a place that isn’t a freedom spot. We found a popular spot and to our surprise it filled up shortly after we arrived. If you’re lucky there is a public washroom in the vicinity which there was. I really don’t want to use the portable toilet that came with the van. We did a short walk through town passing by nice restaurants and shops. It is a really cozy town that gets a lot of tourists for dolphin watching. They have Hector dolphins which are miniature dolphins found only in New Zealand. The sun had set by 6pm so we headed back and cooked our first meal in the campervan. The van is really starting to feel homey.Leia mais