New Zealand -Day One

Hello again! We are back from New Zealand and back to the real world. We had a great time and we all loved our trip away! We survived the motorhome for the two weeks and would do it again! New Zealand is such a clean country to it was easy to use the public facilities and showers whenever we stayed at a holiday park.

I aim to post a diary of our two weeks away here on the blog over the next few weeks. This will help me keep track of what we did as well as whoever is interested can follow along and see some of our photos and what we got up to. I apologise in advance to anyone who isn't interested but I will try to get it over with pretty quickly!

We booked our holiday back in September 2009, I love holidays so I get countless of emails with all of the current specials and this one for New Zealand really stood out! WH was in New Zealand when we first started to get to know each other so we talked a lot on the phone for the few weeks he was there and he loved the country and really wanted to take me to visit, so when the deal came up we made the decision to go. It wasn't easy to make as Nick had just started his own business and we really didn't know how we were going to be doing financially in the future but we stepped out in faith and booked, paid in full for the flights and one weeks motorhome hire then promptly put it out of our minds as we weren't going for another 8 months (oh and we set up a direct debit into our savings account to save money for the trip).

Next thing you know it was mid April and we were leaving in two weeks and we hadn't planned what we were doing! We finally managed to sit down as a family and plan what we wanted to see and how we would go about it. Tuesday prior to our Saturday flight we rang the holiday company and requested an upgrade to a 4 berth motorhome and an extension to hire it for the whole two weeks. At first we could get the 2 +1 Camper for two weeks but everything else was booked. We agreed to take the 2 + 1 but asked if the Rental Company could be informed that we really would like to upgrade to a larger camper and if anyone cancelled please let us know. Fortunately for us someone cancelled and we got a 4 berth motorhome for two weeks!

Day One - Saturday 1st May 2010

We flew out from Sydney airport at 9.50am on Air New Zealand. Arriving in Christchurch at 3.50pm. We were collected from Christchurch by the rental company who took us to our home for the next two weeks. We signed paper work, unpacked our bags and set off on our adventure. We didn't get far, we found the supermarket bought groceries, had dinner at all you can eat Pizza Hut and then searched for a Holiday Park to spend the night in so we could charge the batteries etc! As we got ready for bed we discovered that we had only been supplied with one lot of bedding so poor Nicholas got to sleep under dressing gowns with a jacket for a pillow!

Day two - Sunday 2nd May 2010

Woke up got ready and set off nice and early or so we thought. We forgot to change our clocks and got all confused and it was actually two hours later than we thought! Hmmmmm, that accounts for the strange looks we got as we were wandering around in our pyjamas mid-morning!

After resolving the bedding issue we decided to visit Christchurch Gondola and take a look around from a great vantage point!

The Christchurch Gondola rises 500 metres above sea level over a 945 metre ride.

The views are great and almost seem unreal looking through the windows at Lyttleton Harbour.

There are numerous walking paths at the top that you are able to access either by road or via the Gondola ride.

There is a shop at the top where you can buy all sorts of souvenirs and the complex includes a time tunnel ride that gives you some of the history of New Zealand.

We had lunch in the Summit Cafe and then decided it was time to hit the road!

Given the lateness in leaving Christchurch together with the maximum speed limit on the Campers of 90klm per hour we only managed to travel as far as Kaikoura. Even then the last hour of the trip was in the dark and I think we missed out on some spectacular views of the coastline because oft he darkness. We decided to try and ensure we didn't travel too much in the dark if possible and find a spot to stop before it got dark!

We arrived in Kaikoura and found a lookout where we spent the night!

I hope I am not boring you all with our trip and please feel free to ask any questions as I go, I highly recommend visiting New Zealand if you ever get the chance.

Thanks you for all of your lovely comments while we were away and I am looking forward to catching up with everyone over the next few days! xx