Oh the land of sheep and more sheep. New Zealand is truly breath taking. Long, narrow, windy roads, beautiful scenery. We landed Christchurch late Friday night and had some challenges getting to the motel and checking in. Turns out New Zealand shuts down at 9pm, literally! When we woke him up I felt like we were Cratchet and he was about to fire us for not working Christmas Day!  

The next day we got our campa! That's how they say it here. It's our very own wicked camper van! If you ever wanted to be a hippie and make people think you smoke a lot of pot, this is the van to get. It's spray painted with Emus all over. We named it Nathan the Emu. It's a beat up old van that's probably older than Anna and drives terribly slow along the highway. I have to turn off the over drive just to get up the hills. Older people, explain to the young people what that means and why it's important.  Christchurch is a nice little town probably about 30,000 people strong. It has been devastated by 2 massive earth quakes: one in 2010 and another in 2011. They've never had me before. These earthquakes pretty much leveled their downtown and it was mostly in ruin when we got there. It's called the Red Zone now. The iconic church I believe is no longer there.

We made out way to Wicked Campers, the camper rental van company that had all those cool painted vans we were seeing on the Great Ocean Road. We arrived about half hour before closing time, around 11:30am. It looked a lot like the 60's in there, like the 60's you imagine with bell bottoms, hippie vans, and lots of weed. The inside of the van has built in wood shelves and a convertible table. The back of the van is a little kitchenette with a propane burner, a cooler, and a manual sink. We were excited. It's funky looking, really old school, and drives like an old van should, bumpy and huffing up every incline it meets like a 4 pack a day smoker.

We spent some time at the local "Pac N' Save" getting groceries for the week. It's like our Costco, but no membership fees and much more cheese to choose from. They also had some really cool flavores of sausages that I was very excited to try! Than we shopped at a place called "Warehouse". It's a lot like our Walmart. The mattress and sheets were not exactly inspiring confidence in the hygiene of the previous travelers. We bought some pillows, sheets, and towels.

From Christchurch we drove and drove the countryside. They could've filmed Lord Of The Rings anywhere in New Zealand. They have such grand vistas and undisturbed landscape full of sheep. Sheep sheep everywhere! More than people I think. It gets more beautiful the further north you go from the looks of it. We ended up in Kaikoura, which literally translates into "eat more crayfish!". Yes please! The next day we did just that. Mmmmmmm crayfish. They sell them here all over the place like BC fruit stand vendors.

That night we started a pattern of staying at these camp sites called Top 10. They are the fanciest campsites ever, comes with great kitchens, tv rooms, washrooms, showers, pools etc!

In the morning we drove until we landed in Picton, a quiet little port town that houses the ferry to the north island, but it wasn't quiet at all. An air raid siren was shouting right next to our van the minute we arrived. We thought at first that the Aussies were coming to bomb us with cricket paddles and rugby balls! Turns out it was the fire department, but the Aussie bombing would've  been more fun. A great publicity stunt for any upcoming matches they may have. 

Picton is a very nice little town that reminds us of Banff, but smaller with better food. We learned that coffee here isn't what it is in Canada. All black coffees are double espresso shots, no exceptions! A white coffee is a latte. We didn't have time to translate the rest. Amazing food and a nice little inlet where we can watch the ferries come and go.  Now we're saying goodbye to the South Island and hello to Wellington. We'll tell you about the ferry ride and Wellington next. See you soon. 




AK & AB