New Zealand - Day 1 & 2 - Christchurch & Banks Peninsula

After a rather epic stretch in Hobart and Melbourne airport waiting around for delayed flight after delayed flight, we finally made it to Christchurch – at around 1am. By the time we’d cleared the unusually cheery border control and customs staff it was about 1:30am and we had thoroughly had enough, but still had to make it to our pre-booked guest house. Both in a bit of a daze, we wandered outside and were quickly ushered into a large van by a large (but friendly) man who insisted he’d take us there. Once again, I found myself wondering if we’d see our bags again as they were deposited into his shuttle trailer and we sped off into the chilly night.

Fortunately, everything seems to be nearby in Christchurch so even after dropping off a couple of old dears at their house we were there in about 15 minutes – even more fortunately, the Thistle Guest House was the warmest place in New Zealand at that point! All the corridor heaters, the bedroom heater and electric blanket were blazing away so we pretty much dove into bed and fell asleep as our weary heads hit the pillow.

Christchurch from on high

The next day, we got a cab to the Apollo office (back at the airport) driven by another really friendly lady – this time she was from Tassie and looked a bit like my mum so we instantly bonded. Upon arrival at the office, it was instantly obvious that the Christchurch operation is a tad busier than the Hobart depot. We walked in all cheery and excited and were ignored for a couple of minutes by the 4 or 5 staff beavering away. A rather stern South African lady then told us to fill out some forms and take a seat – it was like going for a flu shot.

Once she was ready, we were seen. We’d booked a ‘cheapa’ camper deal which apparently means that once you get to the office they are allowed to reveal just about as many hidden extra costs as they like so long as they began the sentence with “Now, because this is a cheapa booking….” And you don’t really have any option but to hand over the credit card. They also like to scare you with all the worst case scenarios which is always fun! As soon as we’d finished paying though she COMPLETELY changed and was nice as pie! We chatted about our trip as we looked the van over and she had a jokey bitch about the Hobart office we’d just been to and how quiet they were in comparison.

Soon we were on the road! This time, we decided to head straight to the supermarket to stock up on supplies whilst we were in a city and it was cheaper and more readily available. We loved the supermarket in New Zealand last time as it has wine and beer right with everything else, such a novelty compared to Queensland! Then, once we had bought food, an extra blanket (for Nana Cooksey) and some more clothes we were on the road, again!

For our first stop, we decided to check out Lyttleton via a scenic drive. Unfortunately, our copy of the Lonely Planet proved how out of date they can sometimes be as – firstly the scenic road we wanted to take was closed due to damage, and next – rather foolishly we didn’t realise that the last big quake to hit the area was epicentred right on Lyttleton. It was still like a disaster zone – what would’ve once been a fairly thriving little beachside town with lots of cafes, bars and places to stay was now a ghost town. 60-80% of the businesses were boarded up, some with collapsed walls and broken windows. There was a huge building which looked like 80s style flats right in the centre which looked ready to collapse at any minute and was still just taped off. It made us both quite sad to think about the damage it would’ve caused people around here – especially so soon after the big quake in the city which was still pretty fresh in the memory.

Campsite views of Akaroa

We regrouped and picked another destination to explore – the Banks Peninsula. It involved driving back through the mountain tunnel we’d come through (about 2-3km long) which we were now even more nervous about using, and through the city. We hadn’t noticed much damage coming through the first time, but on the way back we were on a different route and saw much more devastation. I think we went past the main Cathedral which was fairly iconic at the time, and loads of other demolition sites – the roads were also a maze of cones and detours, still a hangover from it all. There was a lot of fresh building work going on though (it looked like the main spire of the church was being raised back on top), so you’d hope some kind of partial recovery would be on the horizon for the city.

As we were leaving, listening to local radio it really hit home for us - we happened to catch the news and heard that during the afternoon there had been two separate aftershocks that hit fairly close to the city and had been felt, but done minimal damage. We’d been completely oblivious at the shops!

We decided to head to Akaroa and stay at the holiday park there – it had good reviews and was near to a few sightseeing spots, plus only about an hour away. The drive there was pretty amazing, coastal winding roads overlooking countless pristine bays – each with a small township at the bottom and surrounded by rolling green hills. We immediately felt like we were really on the South Island. As per usual, we arrived into Akaroa after dark (Lisa thought the view of the final drive down looked like the opening of the game Monkey Island), checked in and finally got to unpack our clothes from our backpacks – it was pretty satisfying, and also exciting rediscovering what we had packed!

We cooked up some tasty NZ salmon in the van and had an early one, still exhausted from only 6 hours sleep at the Guest House the night before.

The next morning we woke to a rather glorious day! The sun was shining, barely a cloud in the sky and we were feeling rather chipper about being back in New Zealand at the start of our adventure. The view from our campsite was pretty awesome, it was perched on a hillside overlooking the bay and Akaroa below – postcard stuff really and there were already scenic flights going around as we had our breakfast outside on a picnic table. 

We decided to head into Akaroa for a poke about in the shops. We’d read that it had originally been a French settlement and so many of the local businesses were named accordingly (our favourite being L’Op Shop) – but all of the streets were also named in French too! It was WEIRD, as were most of the shops themselves.

There was a cool looking pier that looked out into the bay that looked appealing in the sunshine so I dragged Lisa down it for a photo – and low and behold, we only went and found $40 blowing about on there! It actually made our morning as we weren’t all that impressed that the Top 10 site we’d just stayed at (Top 10 is a big chain of holiday parks in NZ – which from now on we’ll never be staying at again!) and it cost $42, so a free nights power!

Afterwards we headed to Barry’s Bay – and the cheese company of the same name to taste some of their products. We were looking forward to this waaaay too much… The cheeses were AMAZING, so we bought 3 or 4 of them plus some crackers. If there is one thing I think we’ll both crave most in Asia – it’s cheese!

Pier of good fortune!

After stocking up on cheese, trinkets and some shopping we’d forgotten in Christchurch, we planned our next move – heading south towards Dunedin. Unfortunately, we didn’t realise that Akaroa was a dead end on the Banks Peninsula so we had to double back for about 50km before turning inland and then south.

Bazza!

On the way we accidentally stumbled upon a huge local running race – it was a 6 person relay (I asked an old boy stewarding) being run between consecutive towns along the highway we were going along. The terrain was crazy – so many steep climbs, and a lot of the runners were well into their 60s, we were impressed to the point where I was beeping at them and shaking my fist out the window for encouragement but in retrospect it may have just looked like I was taking the piss!

We took a few scenic route options along the way, and stopped of at Salmon World (just for a picture of their giant salmon statue and a coffee as it was too much to actually see live salmon, plus we were running late) before arriving at Waitaki Waters, just outside Oamaru around 5pm.

The sun was still out, so we parked up and went for a stroll down to the beach – Derek, the owner even offered to lend me some fishing gear to throw a line in if I wanted (he was amazingly friendly and even gave us free wifi after we pre- booked in for the 2^nd night) – but I declined as it was still freezing and we were pretty tired. Down at the beach – about 800m away it was unlike any I’d been on before, no sand at all just GIANT grey pebbles everywhere, you could hardly walk on them. There were a few people down there fishing, and a family had lit a huge fire to keep warm, so we decided to head back and do the same for the night.

Ginger salmon