4th - 9th April Christchurch to Akaroa

The flight from Brisbane to Christchurch was quite short, only 3 and a half hours, however it wasn't one of our most comfortable of flights, as the plane was small, old (no head rest screens for movie on demand), crap food, and only 2 toilets on the whole plane, so there was a constant queue. I think we'd been spoilt with Singapore and Thai airlines.

The customs were extremely strict for our flight from Oz. We had to declare all food, whether our boots were dirty, and where we'd been in the last 3 weeks. Vik's walking boots were a little dirty, so had to be cleaned. Carl's snorkel and boogie board had to be checked for water or any organisms. There was also a recently trained cute young dog sniffing out any food stuff in our bags. It took a long time to get through this, but they were very nice about it.

We got a shuttle bus to the backpackers we'd booked online a few days before. The guy was really nice and let us off $5 dollars as we didn't have any change.

Our first impression of the Kiwi's, was that they were all extremely nice, chatty and helpful people. Our first impressions of the place, Christchurch, was that it really resembled Britain, but with hints of Oz. It was also a bit shabby around the edges (like home), not like Oz. Oz was so spanky clean and new, that the difference hit us straight away.

The weather was a shock to the system, and after having no sleep the night before the flight (busy noisy backpackers in Brisbane, Vik had fallen a bit ill and went to bed early.

It is almost like been in Britain 20 years ago, the smaller shops are closed on Saturday afternoons, which was a surprise, and don't open until Monday. It was a pleasant experience after been in Thailand (where the shops never close) and Oz, which has become more like the UK. Although, we didn't know what to do with ourselves, but go for a drink in an Irish pub. Where Carl joined the Guinness 100 pint club. You have the privilege of having your name added to a board (above the bar), when you reach your hundredth pint. Some bloke had 63 after his name!

We thought it would take a couple of days to go through all the campervan companies to work out which would be the best value, however, the girl working in our backpackers (Charlie B's) was extremely helpful and got us a good deal with Juicy Campers, for a Hi-top ( you can stand in it) for only $35 a day (14 pounds). Bargain!

It was a really nice day, very autumnal, crisp but with a hot low sun. We walked along the Avon River, where there was Edwardian punting. The sights, sounds, cool feeling and even the smell of the (deciduous ) trees was familiar. Did feel a little home sick for the first time.

On the way to the Botanical Gardens, we saw an Olde English pub (Ye Olde Bard on Avon), which had roast Sunday dinner advertised, yum.

We spent a long hour walking around the English style gardens . It was such a novelty to us that we couldn't help taking lots of pictures, even though we would have never done this at home.

On the way back we stopped off at the English pub for our Sunday dinner, which was huge. (See pic) We stayed for a while trying to organise our trip for the next 14 days.

The friendly landlord came around and asked us if we wanted to do the trivia quiz, and we agreed. We did okay, wished we'd watched more Kevin Costner movies though (as a whole section was based on them). However, we had an educated guess to win the bonus "guess the year" question, and won $30 bar and food voucher, and were entered into a $5000 prize draw. Fingers crossed!

The next day we went to the central aquarium where they had native fish and also a couple of Brown Kiwis - which were amazing to see. They were the size of a big chicken, which was a surprise, as we thought they were smaller. They are nocturnal, so they were very strict and only let us in a dark room to observe in silence, these elusive and unusual creatures. We weren't even allowed to take any pictures. Unfortunately Kiwi's are endangered and rare, and you would be extremely lucky to see one in the wild.

We returned to the English pub to spend our $30 on a meal each, before packing our bags ready for picking up the campervan the next day.

A taxi arrived at 10:30 to take us to the campervan site, and we were given the campervan. We didn't think it was a nice as our Hippie Camper, as it was dirtier and older, but it is bigger and a lot cheaper, so mustn't grumble.

Our first stop was to get towels (as they'd run out), and food from the supermarket. One other thing that is a pleasant surprise, is that the food is soo much cheaper than Oz! We were very happy about this. For example, Oz bread is around $4 (1.80p), NZ bread is around $1.50 (60p).

The journey to Akaroa, a peninsular, was about 85 km east of Christchurch. The scenery was hilly and reminded us of Scotland and the Pennines. Our campsite sat on top of a hill overlooking the old French settlement of Akaroa.

We walked down into the village (where the street names were in French - the only clue of its history) and walked along the lake and had fish (don't have its name as it's Maori) n chips.

The next day we arranged to go on one of the boat cruises that takes you along to the mouth of the harbour where you can see the rarest and smallest Hector dolphins (some call them Panda dolphins - look a bit like mini "killer whales"), blue penguins, Shags, and fur seals. (See Pics.)

The boat was small and only took a few people, which was good for maneuvering around the boat trying to catch a glimpse of the dolphins. We found a pod of the small dolphins as soon as we left the jetty. "Hector" the Cairn Terrier who was the dolphin detector, spotted and heard them.

We saw everything we were promised on the trip, including seal pups playing in the rock pools. We also went out of the harbour mouth to see how the sea conditions were, they were huge, the boat recorded a 4 metre swell, and we had to hang on to the boat.

The boat trip took most of the afternoon and the rest of the day was spent looking around the shops looking for warm clothes/thermals ready for our "tramping" trip around the Milford Sound.

Late afternoon, as the weather was really nice, we went on a tourist drive around the top of the hills and down to other bays. It was a fantastic drive to see down across the valleys and see the sea from north and east.

When we got back, we discovered that our next door neighbours had nicked our power cable, thinking it was an extension lead, and had gone out for the evening. Luckily the campsite owner had a spare, so we were able to have the heater on (as it was pretty cold).

The next morning, the couple that had taken the cable were very apologetic and gave us some of their groceries, as they were leaving NZ. We got a few bottles of beer, and some coffee, which we enjoyed.

We were next heading south west to Lake Takepo, near Aoraki/Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand.