Hello New Zealand!
Now we’re already in the second country on our to-do-list and I had a feeling it will be one of the best ones. Didn’t quite know what to expect – except hikes and sleeping in a car for five weeks – but none of those expectations were met or topped by having Christchurch on a Easter Sunday as our first day in this magnificent country.
Arriving at 5am, walking through a ghost city hungry and tired, not seeing almost a soul got us vary after a weekend in buzzing Hobart. Another lesson to add to our list of things to know – try not to arrive at a new place when it’s a public holiday and everything will be closed.
We found one place selling Weetabix and luckily had cash to pay for it as they didn’t take foreign cards. Ok. Lunch and dinner was a delightful Tuna Subway to top off our last night’s dinner at the Melbourne Airport international terminal’s Hungry Jacks. Eating healthy is not cheap and since cheap is what we’re after our bodies needed to stand this two-days-of-fast-food period.
Initially we were planning to rent a campervan for the 5 weeks we would be spending in NZ but after giving it a bit more thought we decided to look at this as an investment opportunity, possibly the only kind you can afford while traveling.
Buying a car!
Now we are owners of an awesome 2002 Toyota Estima that will be our home for the five weeks in New Zealand. It has a table, a bed, two-burner cooker so basically all we ever hoped for. It took us (Richie) 3 days and about 6 test drives to find this beauty. That was 3 days too much in Christchurch but at least I had a chance to update the blog and read (I have a lot of catching up to do..).
First stop after Christchurch was a penguin town Timaru but unfortunately, we didn’t see any here either. I can sense Richie’s disappointment of me promising all these amazing animal sightings and not seeing anything so the pressure is building to spot something and soon..
Timaru penguing expedition in photos:
The car did not disappoint on our first night, it was so warm and cosy compared to the tent in Tasmania and I was in heaven to cook our brekkie standing up soaking the awesome Hobbitton-like views surrounding us!
