New Zealand: Christchurch to Timaru

We chose to tour New Zealand for the last big holiday of our Australian adventure (even though it is not actually in Australia).  We knew we would have a limited time frame, so Sean initially asked me to pick either the North Island or South Island.  I felt the trip would be incomplete to see only one island though; like only hearing one side of a story.    We talked it over, set up a timeline, and decided we would try see as much of both islands of New Zealand as possible in 9 days. 

More than one person said we were a bit crazy to take this on.  After doing it, I now appreciate what these people were saying.  It was a whirlwind trip.  We averaged 4-5 hours of driving a day with only one day off of traveling.  There were many moments when we were stunned by the magnificence of nature's beauty.  There were also some moments that made us marvel at the strength of the destructive forces of nature.    

I'm going to do something a little different when writing about this trip than I have done in the past.  I'm going to make a different post for each day.  We saw so much in such a short period of time and now I want to take the time to sit back and savor it all.  

We were so lucky that Sean's parents flew down to Sydney to join us on this trip.  They arrived in Sydney just a few days prior to the trip.  They make great traveling companions and it always helps to have a couple of extra people to entertain the kids. 

We got up bright and early to make it to the airport to catch our flight to Christchurch on Saturday, January 11.  We found out the international airport is quite a happening place on a Saturday morning during school holidays.    Our plane was delayed, but otherwise, all went well.  Aubrey commented when we got to New Zealand, "That was a short plane ride".  After all these 15 + hour flights, a 3 hour plane ride seems like nothing.    

We picked up our van from a sketchy little place called Go Rentals.  (We had waited a bit too long to make our reservation, and couldn't find a van to accommodate 6 people from all the major rental companies we were familiar with.)  The van did make us a bit nervous when we saw it.  It was covered in dents and dings, the speedometer had over 100,000 miles on it, and the radio had been replaced with some cheap little radio that reminded me of a high schooler's car.  I said a little prayer that it would not leave us stranded in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand.  

The plan was to stay in a hotel a couple of hours south of Christchurch that first night.  We knew we would be seeing Christchurch later in the trip and we wanted to knock a couple of hours off of our driving for Sunday.  So, we immediately started driving south to Timaru.  It was already 6:00 pm at this time, partly due to the 2 hours we lost by changing timezones.  It was kind of a disorientating feeling to be traveling old school without a functioning phone or GPS since we had to get new SIM cards for our iPhones (in order for them to work in New Zealand).  We are happy to report that we were able to read a paper map and roadsigns well enough to find our way to Timaru.  It was after 8:00 pm by the time we got there.  The good news was, the sun did not set in this part of New Zealand until around 10:00 pm because it during in the long days of summer and we were so far south. 

The owner of the our hotel in Timaru informed us at check-in that there was a carnival in town down by the beach at Caroline Bay.  It was still very light out and we were ready to stretch our legs, so we went down to the beach to check it out.  We did not end up going to the carnival since it did not look very big and the beach was much more appealing.  

Caroline Bay

The kids are running on the beach.

It appeared that someone was ready for a bonfire on the beach.

It is so nice when they are getting along and not fighting!!

Gorgeous sunset

While walking in the area, we noticed signs that said there were blue penguins that lived around the beach.  We hung out for a little while to see them.  While we were waiting, we saw one penguin that had not gone out fishing that day and was burrowed down in the rocks.  We tried not to disturb him/her and just took a quick photo.  The photo is not the best quality since it was getting dark and we didn't use our flash in order to not harm the penguin's eyes.  

The penguin is hidden in the rocks.

We waited around until 10:00 pm and it was still not yet dark enough for the penguins to come into land for the night.  We had already seen a huge penguin parade on Phillip Island just a couple of months prior and it was getting really chilly outside with a strong wind coming off the ocean.  So, we opted to go back to the hotel and rest up instead.

Sean's parents took the kids to spend the night in their hotel room that night.  It was an awesome surprise for me.  With all of our travels, I am used to coming back to the hotel at night and working through my exhaustion to get everyone ready for bed.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief when Sean's parents disappeared with the kids and their bags.  It was such a luxury to be unexpectedly relieved of the nighttime duties.  Plus, the kids were excited to spend time with their grandparents.  What a great beginning to our trip.