New Zealand - Christchurch

When we left home in January, New Zealand seemed so far away, both in distance and in time. But both have flown by and there we were - in Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand's South Island. Before we left, everybody that had been to New Zealand had 'warned' us about the stunning beauty, so to say that we were brimming with anticipation would be an understatement.

Another thing that people (both fellow travellers and kiwi's) had told us was that March is traditionally a 'shoulder-season', which means that accommodation is easy to get, that things can be arranged while there, in general, it is supposedly a relatively quiet (yet weatherwise good) period to visit. A prediction that was proven wrong.
As we were not completely sure when we would get to New Zealand, we had held off booking a campervan till a few weeks before we would get here - it being a shoulder season this shouldn't be an issue. So imagine our surprise that our first ventures into getting our preferred mode of transport and lodging only gave 'fully booked' replies. As we later found out - many people (and judging by the demographics at the campsites, mainly retirees) had travelled to NZ on the same premise during February and booked out the whole stock of available vans. Which left us with an ever-more frantic search - by the time we were in Singapore we had half a dozen companies on the case. Fortunately one of them had good news for us - they found us a van for a price that met our budget (being travellers, there are some restrictions....).

So, when we got to Christchurch we were picked up by our van rental company in somehting that surely couldn't be our van. When JP went the first time to Australia in a campervan (1995 - 1996) this model was around AND was considered to be old-fashioned. A quick look at the license registration documentation showed that this baby had been around since 1991, which means no such 'luxuries' as power steering, radio-CD or airconditioning, as the rental guy said: 'When it gets warm, you just open up the windows.....'. After the first shock, we had to accept that this what was going to be our 'home' for the next weeks. And now, after initially having jealously scrutinised all other vans on the campsite, we have started to enjoy the fact that ours is the oldest around - which makes it kind of unique - and refer proudly as 'our little van'. In Dutch - 'gezellig'! Let's hope that it survives the mileage we are planning to do - roughly 4,000 kilometers in 3.5 weeks!

Christchurch is nothing to write home about - really. But given that this is a blog we'll do it anyway. With 300,000 inhabitants it has the feel of a small city, with a compact city centre where some colonial buildings compete with a few modern developments. Most striking in either category are the cathedral on the main square and the art gallery. Besides that, there are lots of parks, where, we guess, very fortunate and rich young children from the private schools around them play cricket and tennis as part of their favoured upbringing. In many ways, we felt Christchurch to be more English than England - with many of the institutions and traditions of pre-colonial England still in tact.

As Christchurch was short on sights, we spent most of the day planning for our trip around the country - we had a rough outline of what we wanted to see and do, but with the wealth of Tourist Information available in Christchurch (NZ has wholeheartedly embraced tourism and everywhere (as we later found out even in the smallest villages) there are literally hundreds of free and useful maps and brochures available) we were now able to put a bit more flesh on the bones. Having done that we set out for New Zealand's vast hinterland.....