Give them roots and wings

Day 1 

We arrived at Christchurch at 10:35am.  We were supposed to pick up the Campervan from Britz immediately, but due to a misunderstanding, we had to wait a few hours.  We went to the International Antarctic Centre instead (this was actually a better plan, because the International Antarctic Centre is just a 10 minutes walk from the Campervan office).

We paid NZ165 for the family “Xtreme Entry Pass” which includes the 4D theatre and the Hagglund Ride. The children loved it there.

We were very excited.
It was the beginning of our 14 days’ tour in New Zealand!

We started with the 4D adventure ride.
It was ok lah.
(No it’s not the one at the bottom right. That’s just a normal movie.
Yet they were so engaged. Goodness.)

Then we went for the Hagglund ride.  The children loved it!

It was used for the Antarctic Expedition.
There were many hand straps for us to hang on to,
and the insides of the vehicle were quite well cushioned.
I was glad,
because we were really tossed about in the vehicle.

After that we took a lunch break. Macdonalds! The first of many fastfood meals.  It is the cheapest option there.  That, or if we cooked our own meals.

After lunch we went back to the International Antartic Centre.

The boys love to ride vehicles and climb.
Of course, they also obliged and posed for mummy.
Mummy loves to take “pretend” pictures.
“Hey, pretend that you are in the room”
(Huh? Err… mum, I AM in the room..)

We enjoyed the penguin feeding.  The penguins here were rescued from the wild.  They are not allowed to breed, because they are feared to have defective genes.  So any eggs they lay are taken away.  *So sad*

The Blue Penguins. Smallest in the world.

The last activity we did was the Snow Storm. It was so fun! The wind was very strong! Samuel said that he was feeling very cold and we nearly brought him out. I am glad we did not, because now he can say that he braved a snow storm, although it was only for 5 minutes.

This was before the storm started.
The temperature was minus 8 degrees!
It went down to minus 35 degrees during the storm!
It was too dark to take photos then.

Finally at 4:45pm, we picked up our Campervan. The boys were so excited. Frankly, so were the adults.

We went grocery shopping, before returning to our first Campground at 8:15pm. It did not get dark till about 9pm.  By the time we had dinner (Roast Chicken and Pizza) and settled down, it was close to midnight.  We slept past midnight that first night.

Day 2

We cooked all the bacon which we bought, and put them in the fridge for future meals. We drove off at about 11am.  The drive to Kaikoura was lovely.  We were enthralled with the scenery and fascinated with everything.

The first of our many such stops, to take in the scenery

“Tunnel! Tunnel!”

We were supposed to do a Horsetrek at Fyffe Adventure Park at 2pm.  Apparently it rained heavily at Kaikoura in the morning and so all the horses were taken back to rest. Anyway, we were also late by 30 minutes.  So we did not get to do the horse trek.  Samuel was very disappointed.

We spotted two seals.
One took about 5 minutes to cross the road onto the beach.
It stopped a few times to do its business as it went along.
I hope it is natural behaviour (?).
The other one slept the whole time, on the rocks.

We did a brief walk up the nearby lookout.

We watched the shearing of a Drysdale, which has to be sheared every 6 months.

We had a bit of fun, at Elkan’s expense. He didn’t mind it.

We reached the campground close to 8pm. We had cup noodles and mushroom soup for dinner, and slept at 11:30pm.

Day 3

We drove off at about 10am, to Punakaiki, via Lewis Pass.  We stopped over to take photos and play.

We enjoyed spotting bales of hay which Samuel named as “Marshmellows”.

There were lots of one-lane roads and bridges. This is one of the longer ones we drove over.

We carried on our drive to the Punakaiki Rocks. The drive was beautiful, and so were the Pancake Rocks and the Blowholes. We arrived at about 5:30pm which was perfect, because it was high-tide and we could see the blowholes in their full magnificence.

After that, we drove down to Hokitika for the Glowworm dell.Soon after the turn into the highway to Hokitika, we drove on the most terrifying one-way road we have ever seen.  Not only was it shared by the on-coming traffic, it was shared with a train. We were practically driving on the railway track!

Edmund was so worried that he would drive headllong onto a train!  Needless to say, the more ignorant ones (that includes me), were thrilled.

The place was not very big, but it was fun and thrilling nonetheless.  It was too dark for our camera to take photos.

After that, we drove to the nearby Lake Mahinapua Coastal Camp Ground (DOC) for the night.  Again, it was quite a terrifying drive for Edmund, because he did it in pitch darkness. We could hardly see where to park, but thankfully, there were still some campers who were awake. The lights from their campervans guided us. We slept at about 11pm.

Read about Day 4-5 : Franz Josef, Wanaka and Queenstown

Return to New Zealand, South Island : Overview