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  • Robert FyfeAn Antipodean Adventure
    Day19

    Creative Christchurch

     February 8 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    This morning’s port was Akaroa - a charming town that strives to recreate the feel of a French provincial village, down to the names of its streets. The ships used to dock in Lyttelton, but since the earthquakes Akaroa has been a popular substitute.

    Given the weather this morning, which was cool and a bit wet, we decided to take a trip on a local tour coach to Christchurch, 1.5 hours away. Beautiful scenery of mountains and lakes en route reminded us of our homeland.

    Christchurch is in the middle of an epic rebuild that has completely reconstructed the city centre, where over 80% of buildings needed to be demolished after the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, which left 186 people dead. There are still lots of vacant lots and most buildings in the city are only a few years old. We took the historic tram ride around the city centre, visiting the ruined cathedral, Canterbury Museum and another Botanic Gardens (Ken, you would be proud of us!).

    Christchurch is like a Phoenix rising from the ashes and seems to have a burgeoning Arts scene, with numerous art galleries, museums etc. It’ll be nice when it’s finished.    Read more

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  • KikiandBexNew Zealand
    Day20

    Christchurch

     January 9 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    This morning after breakfast we drove from Timaru to Christchurch. In Christchurch we had something to eat, visited the the botanical garden and briefly took a look at the Canterburry Museum. Afterwards we went to the hotel and now we’ll just relax a bit before our return flight tomorrow!

    Heute morgen sind wir nach dem Frühstück von Timaru nach Christchurch gefahren. In Christchurch haben wir etwas gegessen, uns den botanischen Garten angeschaut und kurz das Canterburry Museum angeschaut. Danach sind wir ins Hotel und entspannen nun vor unserem morgigen Rückflug noch ein bisschen!Read more

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  • New Zealand December 2018
    Day6

    Ali and Jill

     December 18, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Arrived in Christchurch and fabulous reunion with Ali and Jill. Great to be back visting again. Went for a walk around Christchurch. Walked past these sweet peas and had food at C1 Espresso cafe where food is delivered to your table through pneumatic tubes!

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  • KikiandBexNew Zealand
    Day19

    From Queenstown to Timaru

     January 8 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    After breakfast this morning we went for a walk on Lake Wakatipu. At about 11:30 a.m. we drove towards Timaru. We took a few breaks during the journey, including at Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo. The two lakes have an unusual and quite striking blue water.

    Here is the Wikipedia explanation for it:

    [...The glacial feed to the lakes gives them a distinctive blue colour, created by glacial flour, the extremely finely ground rock particles from the glaciers.]

    Heute morgen haben wir nach dem Frühstück zuerst einen Spaziergang am Lake Wakatipu gemacht und sind dann um ca. 11:30 Uhr in Richtung Timaru gefahren. Während der Fahrt haben wir einige Pausen eingelegt, u.a. am Lake Pukaki und am Lake Tekapo. Die beiden Seen haben ein ungewöhnlich- und recht auffällig blau strahlendes Wasser.

    Hier die Wikipedia Erklärung dafür:

    [... Der Zufluss an Gletscherwasser gibt den Seen eine typische blaue Farbe, die durch feine Partikel aus dem Abrieb des Gletscheruntergrundes entsteht.]    Read more

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  • Chantal RuppenAustralien, Neuseeland
    Day103

    Kaikoura

     February 4 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Kaikoura ist eine Ausgangsbasis für Wildtier-Abenteuer jeder Art. Die Spezialität in Kaikoura liegt bei den Begegnungen mit Meeressäugetieren - in den Küstengewässern leben Wale, Seerobben und Delfine. Ausserdem gibt es hier überall Krebse zu kaufen (in der Sprache der Maori bedeutet „kai“ Essen und „koura“ Krebs). Der Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway ist perfekt um die Seerobenkolonie zu beobachten. Die erste Kolonie sichteten wir bereits schon vor der Ortschaft an der Küste, wo überall junge Seerobben miteinander spielten. Für Morgen ist eine Waltour geplant, ob sie stattfindet werden wir jedoch erst kurzfristig erfahren. Zurzeit weht ein sehr starker Wind, welches die See sehr rau macht.Read more

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  • Christian ArnNeuseeland / Australien
    Day18

    Kaikoura

     April 23, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Wake-up call early in the morning for a 1.5 hours drive to Kaikoura. Nice little town at the beach which is well known for its seafood 🦞 and whale 🐳 watching excursions. Unfortunately the whales had been out of the operated section in the morning hours 🙈. Marc and I planned something different anyway. We went for a walk along the beautiful Kaikouri peninsula where we had seen many fur seals including babies together with their mothers just a few meters away from us. Afterwards I went for lunch together with Marc. I tried green lipped mussels for the first time. It was very delicious 😋! At two o‘clock already at a camp ground in Kaikoura with a good Pinot Gris from Marlborough, New Zealand 🇳🇿.Read more

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  • Christian ArnNeuseeland / Australien
    Day18

    Kaikoura - Akaroa

     April 23, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    On our second last day in NZL we left Kaikoura in the morning for a nice drive to Christchurch. For the moment we bypassed Christchurch and followed the road to the outer end of the Peninsula out of CC until we reached the touristic village of Akaroa. Nice little town with lots of shops and even a boucher where we bought our last BBQ 🍖 for the evening. Looking at the surroundings of Akaora you could imagine being in Meggen or elsewhere at Lake Lucerne. Quite similar scenery but with no higher alps behind. Spent the night at a camping ground above Akaora with a nice view across the harbour and town.Read more

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and back
    Day96

    Goodbye tent?

     February 10 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    New Zealand really wanted to get rid of us, or at least the sandflys made us think so. As soon as the sun rose behind the mountains and it got pleasantly warm in the tent, they were all up again swarming between the tent layers, around the entrance or just chilled on top of the tent. It was a shame because instead of enjoying breakfast on our beach towels at the lake surrounded by mountains we had to flee into the car. And the most annoying thing about it is that none else seems to have this problem. It's as if all the sandflies in the wider area collectively decide that we are the target. The 2 other tents at the camping were totally fine and the guy next to us almost couldn't believe it when he saw the sandflies around us and our tent. So apparently we just smell really good, as does our tent, and our car, apparently... After hastily packing our stuff we drove off to brush our teeth somewhere else. We just wanted to get out of there.

    On the way back to Christchurch we stopped at the Castle Hill Limestones. A fun walk among humongous boulders. Like the elephant boulders we saw some time ago, but then even better. We had a typical New Zealand pie somewhere for lunch, and had a few other quick stops with not so noteworthy viewpoints. Arriving in Christchurch, we still had quite a few things to do before our flight. Grocery shopping, a stop at the farmacy, laundry, and a much needed hairdresser for Machiel. Especially the laundry at the campsite became an issue when it just didn't want to dry quickly enough. At least no sandflies though. In the meantime we made a wraps dinner and booked the transportation for the Fiji islands. After a shower it was time for bed. The weird thing was that we didn't know if this was the last time we would sleep in this tent. For the next 3.5 months we most likely won't sleep in any tent and seeing how the front zipper slowly stops working and the tent is more than 6 years old, it would be an easy way to save some space and weight. And while Machiel can think about this very rationally, Susanne struggles more as this became our home over the past months.    Read more

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  • Izzi and TomTravels
    Day68

    Day 68/72: SUCH A GOOD DAY

     January 3, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    What an incredible day. Against many odds we managed to do the 2 last things on our list of wild activities. It was the grand finale for our massive travelling adventure, and we saw it out in style.

    The issue being described previously, we woke at 0145 on Thursday morning. The stars were some of the greatest we have ever seen, and after seeing some shooting stars, we set off on the 4 hour journey back down South. We were heading for Activity 1, swimming with dolphins! We didn't know the date of this activity, but on the off chance it was today, drove down. The drive was peaceful and the sun rose as we went on our way. We arrived, and after a short nap, walked to the centre to find that we had booked the activity for the following day. All hope was not lost though, and we waited in anticipation (watching a Ray swim lazily along the harbour wall) to see if anyone would cancel at this hour in the morning (0620). Then, a stroke of luck! The lady at the desk took pity on us and handed us the golden tickets (orange wristbands) of glory that let us through the arches (door) into the changing rooms! We couldn't have moved quicker and soon we were wetsuited up and ready to go.

    We got into the little boat with 8 others and headed out into the harbour in search of the dolphins. We were in search of the Hector's Dolphin, the rarest and smallest sea dolphin in the world (about 1m in length). As they're all completely wild, we were relying on the dolphins playful nature and pure curiosity of us to see them.

    This paid off though, and we saw them, their little dorsal fins breaking and then going under the surface of the water. It was brilliant to see, and after a few sightings of dolphins that weren't interested in the boat we came across a couple that were more enthusiastic. We got into the water and bobbed around in the thick wetsuits. The dolphins came up to us and swam right by us! It was very exciting but they seemed intent on breakfast so we turned to get back in the boat and try again. But then, a little figure pops out the water just in front of us and a blue penguin swims by, just starting his day of fishing!

    We then went on and for a while just watched and looked out for dolphins, until the time came for us to get back in the water! This was brilliant, as the Dolphins came right up next to us and were swimming underneath us and everything! It was so exciting, there must have been about 8 of them! We did that for as long as it took the Dolphins to get bored of us and then got back in the boat, had some hot chocolate and headed back to shore.

    We then went off to Activity 2, whale watching! Whilst we had been swimming, we'd had our wait list slot confirmed so needed to get back to the place we'd left earlier that morning by 1315. The arrival time said 1321 so we set off and headed up north again, arriving just on time!

    The whale watching was incredible. After a brief, we got on the boat and headed out to the sea. The water depth drops suddenly to about 1100m which is where the whales like to dive. We saw ospreys and Dolphins along the way, and the spout of a sey whale which is really rare for this area! We got told different bits of info as the boat trip went on which was great, and we waited for the Sperm whale that was in the area to resurface so we could see it.

    It was amazing to see. The whale resurfaced and the boat went over to a respectable distance away so we could watch him breathe. Sperm whales spend about 5-10 minutes on the surface before diving back down, so we got to bask in it's magnificence before it took its last breath, and slowly dived, his tail coming in an arc out of the water and then dropping beneath the surface. It was brilliant to watch, such a special experience.

    We then drove all the way back down to Christchurch, powered by fish and chips. We knew the next day was just going to be one of packing up and relaxing, so it was better to do all the driving in one day. We got to the campsite at about 8 and found a nice spot in the corner of the field, and settled into our penultimate night in the campervan.    Read more

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  • Christian ArnNeuseeland / Australien
    Day17

    From West to East

     April 22, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Spent some beautiful moments early in the morning at the beach with a fantastic view to Mt. Cook (highest mountain in NZL).
    Afterwards we hit the road to visit a Kiwi center in Hokitika which is a little town just south of Greymouth. At noon long discussions about where to go. My favorite to take a 5 hours drive down south to Wanaka did not meet thumb-up level with the others. So we drove over Arthur‘s pass to Waipara just north of Christchurch on the east cost. In the end we spent even a bit more than 5 hours in the car by that option... Spent the night in a small camp out in the „pampa“. The owner must be a railway fan. He has setup the whole camp with some railway relicts. Met a German singer and songwriter at BBQ and an English couple who shared some wine with us.Read more

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You might also know this place by the following names:

Canterbury, Кентърбъри, Kanterburio, Región de Canterbury, Canterbury ringkond, Canterbury eskualdea, ناحیه کانتربوری, קנטרברי, カンタベリー地方, კენტერბერის რეგიონი, 캔터베리 지방, Waitaha, Кантербери, Wilayah Canterbury, Canterbury på New Zealand, Кентербери, 坎特伯雷區

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