Shady Travels: Live, Explore, Learn: Hello New Year. Hello New Zealand.

Only a 3 Hour Flight

Distance from Sydney to Christchurch is 1319 miles (2123 km)

After a long day and long night at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Sydney, Dave and I woke to the first day of the New Year at 10am to the most irritating sound…the alarm.

We had to set the alarm because at 2pm, our houseguest would be arriving. We decided to place an ad on Gum Tree for a short term stay at our Elizabeth Bay apartment. If we didn’t, we would be out $800 for 2 weeks rent while away in the South Island of New Zealand.

We staggered out of bed, showered and had the most amazing hangover breakfast – 2 fried eggs with rice. Dave is turning Filipino little by little.

While I packed, Dave cleaned. While Dave packed, I cleaned. We were finally finished by 2pm. We waited for half an hour anticipating who would knock on our door.

Two days before, we had given up on the idea of salvaging our savings by renting our apartment. We had only two responses, but both had either had the wrong dates or found other accommodation arrangements. Unexpectedly, we received a call from an Aussie guy, now expat living in Spain who was here only for a month while he attempted to set up his business in Spain in Australia. Frankly, he was tired of sleeping on friend’s couches in Bondi and needed to be closer to the CBD, while in town. Believable story right?

Driving in from Campbelltown, he phoned in to explain his tardiness. He arrived a little before 3pm. We opened the door and there stood a man in his early 30s with a preppy yet relaxed boating outfit look. He explained his Kiwi background, Australian upbringing and expat life in Ibiza. He simply needed a place to set up his office closer to the city, rather than spend time and money commuting.

We left him at 3:20 after his paid us in full and we took photos of his New Zealand passport. After taking a photo of his passport, I didn't feel good about this exchange. The passport photo was in black and white and on thick cardboard paper. What do I know though, I've never seen a New Zealand passport. He did pay up front, but we still had knots in our stomachs. We kept calm and though more about the very thing we were looking forward to – our flight to New Zealand!

During the Christmas/New Year holiday period, Australia shuts down. Retail and food shops are open, but businesses especially those working in the media close until mid January. Once I found out my office would close between 22nd December to 16th January, Dave and I booked our next adventure to the land of the Kiwis. Although we haven’t hit up all the Australia hot spots, trips to New Zealand and Fiji are high on the bucket list.

We took off at 7pm for a 3 hour flight. Still recovering from a strenuous New Year’s Eve, we thought we would fall asleep, but of course we didn’t. There were great entertainment options including TV shows about New Zealand food and the Greatest Football Goals – my kind of programming.

We arrived 15 minutes to midnight in Christchurch. As we walked through the airport, we noticed netting above us. There couldn’t be birds in this airport? We later understood why.

Once out of immigration and customs checks, we were on a shuttle to our hotel only 2 minutes away from the airport. We checked in and walked into our room by 12:30pm. New Zealand has made a good impression so far. Thankfully, Dave had booked all of our lodging for the entire 2 weeks, so we never had to worry about accommodation.

Ready to shut our eyes at 1am, we laid in bed and felt a shudder…for 5 seconds! After backpacking around South East Asia, our first instinct that it must be rooms around us, but this was different. These shakes moved the entire room. Dave and I looked at each other with one question on our minds, “Was that an earthquake?”

I woke up again to birds chirping at 5:45am. There were so many and they wouldn’t stop. I looked at Dave blissfully sleeping and then again another shake. This tremor was longer. We embraced each other knowing for certain this was an earthquake.

After checkout, we hopped onto the shuttle back to the airport to grab the city bus. Our driver asked us if we had felt the earthquake. The one in the morning was recorded at 5.5 on the Richter scale affecting the already devastated east side of Christchurch. According to the news, Christchurch has experienced over 40 earthquakes since Christmas. When we heard there was a strong 5.8 on Christmas Eve, we were nervous about our trip, but once we felt them we knew truly knew how the locals felt.

God Save Us with the Zip Ties!

The Rental for the Next 2 Weeks

We picked up our rental car, a lovely Nissan silver 4-door with zip ties on the tyres. After a few lost turns around Christchurch, exchanging money and laksa at the only restaurant open on New Year’s Day observed, we finally headed out west towards Lake Tepago.

For the next 3 hours, we drove through the scenic route observing rolling hills and pastures dotted with cows and sheep…many many sheep. Apparently, the sheep to people ratio is 18:1.

Despite the strange weather of grey and cloudy, spitting rain and sunshine, we took in the beautiful Canterbury region’s countryside.

Rakai Gorge

One of the most beautiful sites was our stop at the Rakaia Gorge. The area had limestone cliffs, blue water and a pebble sandbar. We managed to squeeze a stop between rain showers to skip rocks and take in the breathtaking landscape.

Blue Waters, Limestone Cliffs, Pebble Sandbar

Skipping Rocks

Flowers in a Cold Summer

How Blue is That Water!

Kiwis are Such Nice People

Sign at a Gas Station

Dark Clouds, but Beautiful Countryside

Enjoying Speights Dark & Monteith's Cider

We arrived at our night’s destination, Fairlie and was this place fairly empty. It was a small quaint town with a city centre a mere 3 blocks across Main Street. We checked into a campsite, which thankfully had furnished studio units. We were lucky to have a queen size bed, flat screen TV, full kitchen and best of all…wireless! We walked through the sleepy city centre, bought sliced bread, peanut butter and strawberry jam for the road and settled for an afternoon drink at the local watering hole…the single pub boasting the best food in town.

Upon entering, we found exactly what we expected…a small pub with a handful of old locals bantering over pitchers. It was a lovely comforting site reminding us of Australia and even home.

Skeptical of the menu, I ordered what I knew would be safe…a hamburger. This was called a Hogi burger. What came to my table was a burger with an egg, bacon, cheese, steak and pineapple slices! Dave fondly looked at my meal wishing he hadn’t ordered his steak sandwich, which was literally steak between two slices of white bread with lettuce and mayo. No sad faces here because we share our meals except he believed his sandwich was not worth sharing.

After our pub meal, we walked through the campsite taking in the cool brisk air and watching families set up their tents and camper vans, while children bicycled past us on the gravel road.