Christchurch

http://www.travelark.org/travel-blog-entry/tofo…

It was great to be back at the international terminal of Melbourne airport. It was a bit surreal. It all felt so casual, laidback, effortless and easy compared to last time around. 10 nights in New Zealand pales in comparison to an open ended world flight, but still Nat and I were looking forward to the adventure ahead. I spent the afternoon packing, and not just for myself; two rabbits had to be prepared for a holiday of their own. With their holiday retreat organized, we set off for Tullamarine for a 6.35pm flight.
Everything went amazingly smoothly. Check in efficient; customs a breeze; and for possibly the first time in history I wasn't randomly searched and screened by security. We settled in for a pre flight beer, reminiscing about last year and enthusing about the trip to come! Theres so much to come.

Our Virgin Australia flight was delayed, but otherwise pretty decent. Ultimately it just felt like a domestic flight. We sat next to a cheery lady from Christchurch who had plenty of suggestions for our trip ahead. The final half hour of the (3.5 hour) trip arriving into Christchurch was one of the roughest in memory. Still, we touched down in one piece just behind schedule around midnight local time (2 hours ahead of Melbourne time).
We were quick to clear customs, grab a cheap local simcard $35nzd (exchange 1AUD = 1.13NZD), and pick up our hire car for the journey being a new brown KIA CERATO..with GPS (awesome!). Great car, just not a big enough boot to contain our luggage. Last year we had 20kg backpacks for over 6 months, this year it was 23kg for 10 nights.. It was just a 20 minute drive from the airport to our first nights accommodation at Merivale Court Motel on the fringes of the Christchurch CBD. Amazed at how exhausted we both were we just fell into bed around 2amRead more