New Zealand: Christchurch to Wellington

We woke up extra early on Wednesday morning.  By 7:30 am we were already packed up and heading out of Christchurch.  We had a 4 1/2 hour drive to Picton to catch a ferry to the North Island.  What made it so difficult was that the boarding call to get on the ferry was 1:00 pm.  That doesn't leave a lot of extra room for stops.

We drove from Christchurch to Picton, where the red pin is, and then took the ferry to Wellington.

Photos from the road; we couldn't take the time to stop.

Cool, rustic tunnels.  Or, scary tunnels.  Depends on how claustrophobic you are.

We needed a pit stop about 2 1/2 hours out of Christchurch.  We saw signs that the next town was Kaikoura.  I instantly fell in love with this lovely town.  I am a person that is strongly guided by my intuition.  As soon as we drove into town, everything felt "right".  It had that beachy, bohemian feel that I love.  Yet, it did not feel run down like some beach towns do, but rather like everything was well kept up and maintained.  The water was gorgeous.  The beach was really nice, even though it was a darker, coarse sand texture and not a fine, white sand like Sydney beaches.  That is fine with me.  I don't always need to go lay out on the beach; I would be perfectly content to sit somewhere comfortable with a gorgeous view and a great book.  If I wasn't staring at the ocean, then I could look at the spectacular mountains surrounding the area.  I was genuinely sad because our stop here was so quick.  Maybe I had such a strong feeling because I was exhausted from all the driving and the beach looked so enticing on our first truly sunny day of the trip.  But, the group could have left me in that little town and I wouldn't have complained one bit.

The beach near Kaikoura.  Not too shabby.

Yep.  I could stay here awhile.

We rolled into Picton at 12:30, so plenty of time before the 1:00 pm boarding call for the ferry leaving at 2:00 pm.  We had to wait until around 1:30 to board and then we had free reign to roam the ferry.  It was a pretty large boat with about 10 levels, but passengers could only use about half of them.  We ate a late lunch once we boarded the boat and then Carter and Aubrey had fun exploring all the boat's nooks and crannies.  As expected, their favorite location was the kids' playground.  

From Picton, the ferry followed the dotted line to Wellington.

Chillin' on the ferry

Views as we left the South Island

There was even a magic show for the kids on the ferry!

The first part of the trip was smooth as the boat was navigating out of the sound.  However, the ferry got pretty rocky when it was on the open seas between the two islands.  My motion sickness was making me feel pretty rough, so I just zoned out, listened to my audiobook, and tried to watch the outside scenery for that portion of the trip.  Aubrey did really, really well.  She had a very short period that she felt sick, but it did not last very long and then she was completely fine.  We were all good once the boat got back into sheltered waters. 

Hello, North Island!

Our first glimpses of Wellington

On a side note, I was very anxious about Aubrey and her motion sickness before  starting this New Zealand trip.  She is extremely sensitive to small, curvy roads and it has been an issue with a lot of our other travels around Australia.  I knew New Zealand was going to be full of small, curvy roads.  Phenergan does help her and it is over the counter in Australia, but it makes her really drowsy and I did not want to medicate her with it for 9 days in a row.  

Right before we left, I purchased Aubrey a set of motion sickness wrist bands.  I thought they were kind of pricey for basically two elastic bands with little plastic balls in the middle.  The theory is that the plastic balls are placed in a specific position on her wrist to put pressure on the P6 acupuncture site.  This acupuncture site is supposed to help control nausea and vomiting.  I almost didn't do it because of the price and there is no good evidence based proof that they work.  On a whim, I went ahead and got them because I thought if they actually worked, they would be worth their weight in gold.  

Aubrey had two very minor bouts with motion sickness on the entire 9 day trip and she never threw up.  I gave her a small amount of medicine on the first couple days and before we took the ferry, but that was it.  Considering how rocky the ferry got, I don't think the Phenergan alone would have stopped her from being ill.  It was a miracle.  And, you can't claim it was a placebo effect because Aubrey is too young for that to be a factor.  The bracelets may not work for everyone, but I believe that they helped Aubrey on this trip.  And, yes, they were worth their weight in gold to us. 

The ferry was supposed to take about 3 1/2 hours, but it took a little longer thanks to another boat having technical difficulties and blocking the port in Wellington.  We were all starving by the time we got to Wellington since the food options on the boat were not that great.  We went down to the wharf area to eat dinner at a restaurant before we even checked into the hotel.  It was 7:00 pm by this time and there was a wait to get a seat at most restaurants.  We walked around a bit and ended up at Wagamama.  We had eaten at the chain Japanese restaurant once in Melbourne and really enjoyed it.  We had a great experience again and everyone in our party loved their meal.

The wharf area in Wellington

Walking along the wharf.  The buildings on the right were full of restaurants.

Some creative restrooms

We were ready to go check into the hotel after dinner.  The hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the wharf and the drive wasn't much shorter thanks to the small streets in the city center of Wellington.  Carter and I decided to burn some energy and walk to the hotel while everyone else drove.  Carter was pretty excited that we actually beat them to the hotel.  (We may have cheated and ran a little bit.)  We settled in for the night and looked forward to spending the entire next day in Wellington.  Wellington looked like a very small, walkable city.  That made me very happy because I did not even want to LOOK at that darn minivan for the next 36 hours.

New Zealand: Dunedin to Christchurch

Weather in Dunedin on Tuesday morning was still very unsummery.  It was in the upper 40's (around 9 Celsius) and it still could not make up its mind if it wanted to be sunny or cloudy.  Perhaps the weather was just putting us in the right frame of mind to look at Scottish architecture.  

Cathedral Church of St. Paul

Dunedin Railway Station

Railway Station front view

We drove from our hotel in Dunedin City to the Larnach Castle, New Zealand's only castle, located on a peninsula a little outside of town.  The castle was built by an Australian banker of Scottish descent.  He relocated to New Zealand in 1867 and built Larnach Castle between the years of 1871 to 1887.  We spent the morning touring the magnificent castle and gardens.  

Views driving towards Larnach Castle

The land and harbor of Dunedin are the remnants of a dormant volcano.  It makes for some interesting landscapes.

Larnach Castle

Larnach Castle with the attached buildings

Stunning view of the harbor from the top of the castle

The inside of the castle was very ornate.  Unfortunately, it was hard to take many good pictures inside because it was rather dark.  The gardens were another matter.  The gardens of Larnach Castle have earned the distinction of being a Garden of International Significance from New Zealand Gardens Trust.  It would be hard to take bad photos of these gorgeous gardens.   

The gardens at the front entrance

The gardens overlooking the harbor

The kids in front of the entrance to the dungeon

Sitting in the Chair of Hearts

We continued our journey north in the afternoon.  We stopped to view the Moeraki Boulders at Koekohe Beach, about an hour north of Dunedin.  They are unusually large boulders that are spherical in shape (except where they have cracked open).  They are a natural phenomenon from the cementation of Paleocene mudstone and are now being exhumed by coastal erosion.  Local Maori, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, say the boulders were the remains of eel baskets, gourds, and sweet potatoes washed ashore the the wreck of a large canoe.  The kids had fun walking amongst them and taking some photos.  It was especially nice because the sun finally started to come out and warm us up.  

The pin is the Moeraki Boulders

Moeraki Boulders

Carter looks like he was doing yoga on the boulder.

Aubrey had fun doing her own poses.

Impressive views, even without the boulders in the photo

We headed straight to Christchurch after this stop and checked into our hotel around 6:00 pm.  We decided to go see Christchurch as soon as we checked in that evening because we would not have time to see it in the morning.  I had heard there was still a lot of damage in Christchurch from the earthquake that happened in February 2011.  It was really saddening to see it though.  After all, the earthquake had been almost 3 years prior and there were still buildings barely standing and huge piles of rubbish everywhere.  Parts of the city center were just blocked off.  There were walls of many buildings held up by stacked semi-trailers.  It was a heartbreaking sight.

Downtown Christchurch

The road that is blocked off that says "no exit" would have been a through street in the city center.

The sign by these chairs says "St. Paul's Trinity Pacific Presbyterian Church"

So, so sad.....

The mood in the van was very gloomy until we caught sight of a Denny's restaurant very close to the city center.  It has been years since I have been in a Denny's.  It is probably not a place we would have thought about eating at if we were in the US.  It is amazing sometimes what excites you when you have been living outside of the country for awhile.  American breakfast food for dinner definitely hit the spot that night.

Cardboard cutouts are always fun.

We drove towards the coast in Christchurch after dinner.  We continued to see signs of the earthquake wreckage all the way to the beach in New Brighton.

After we walked around the beach a little bit, we drove back to the hotel and called it a night.  We were going to have an early start the next day, so we needed to rest up.....   

New Zealand: Queenstown to Dunedin

We woke up in Queenstown on Monday morning.  Queenstown is known as being the "Adventure Capital of New Zealand".  In fact, bungee jumping was invented here.  The mountains around the city make it a popular skiing location in winter months (June, July, and August).  It is also famous for the Lord of the Rings trilogy being filmed in, and around, the city.

We drove around the area and tried to absorb the beauty all around us.  It is the kind of beauty that cannot be described, only experienced.  I have seen some gorgeous places in our travels over the past 2 years, and Queenstown is definitely in the top 5.  The deep turquoise of the lake water with the mountains as a backdrop.  Wow.  Just wow.

Carter was feeling a little silly during our family photo shoot.

TSS Earnslaw taking tourists across Lake Wakatipu

I thought these 2 photos were interesting to show how the lighting changed as the low lying clouds moved across the sky.  This was such a peaceful spot.  I could have sat and watched the clouds all day.

    This sign was located where we were taking the photos.  We thought it was pretty comical (and truthful!).

It was at this point I regretted only planning one night in Queenstown.  When I think of paradise, I often think of a tropical location.  Queenstown is certainly not tropical, but is a type of paradise.  If only I could be magically transported back here whenever I need a break from real life.  I suppose that is why we take pictures.....

We couldn't spend too long in Queenstown that morning, we had a big day of driving ahead of us.   We had a schedule to keep and the road was calling us.  Off we drove towards the southern coast of New Zealand.    

Alternate the hay bales with sheep and cows, and is what most of the scenery looked like on the drive south from Queenstown.  

It took a little over 2 hours to drive from Queenstown to Invercargill where we ate lunch at Devil Burger, a New Zealand restaurant with locations both in Queenstown and Invercargill.  The restaurant uses New Zealand Prime beef in their burgers and it was very delicious.  

After lunch, we drove the last 25 minutes to Bluff.  It the southernmost town in New Zealand, excluding Oban (a town with the population of around 400 on Steward Island).  It was super windy and spitting rain when we got there.  It was actually pretty miserable to be standing out in the elements.

Lighthouse at Bluff

I was being blown away!

It was a very rocky coastline.

The kids posing in front of the lighthouse.  

Lighthouse on Dog Island (a very small island just off the shore)

We followed street signs up to a lookout over the peninsula of Bluff.  I am sure it is an even more amazing view on clear day.

We jumped back into the van after taking the photos and headed northwards towards Dunedin, which would be another 3 hours of driving.  Luckily, both kids fell asleep and we all just zoned out.  The scenery was probably the least interesting of the trip and the weather remained rather dodgy.  It would go back and forth between cloudy and rainy to blue sky with big fluffy clouds.  

We had a nice surprise on this day.  We lost all radio stations traveling through the New Zealand countryside, so I attempted to turn the radio off by switching the source to CD.  All of a sudden the song by Katy Perry "Roar" started playing.  Go Rentals had made a mix CD of popular music and left it in the van's CD player for such moments.  It made me appreciate the sketchy car rental company a little bit.  Of course, some of that warmness waned after we listened to the CD all the way through several times in a row.  If you are not a teenager, there is a limit on how many times in a row you can listen to most pop songs.  But, I still think it was a considerate deed of the rental company.


We got into Dunedin about 6:30 pm.  Dunedin was originally a Scottish settlement and a lot of its architecture reflects that.  It was the largest city in New Zealand until around 1900.  It is now a university town.  It is home to both University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic, and students make up over 20% of the population.  We checked into our hotel, the Scenic Hotel in Dunedin City.  After traveling in a car all day, it is nice to stay within walking distance of the city center.   We walked to dinner at Craft Bar by the Octagon in the middle of town.  We had a yummy meal and tried some specialty New Zealand beers. 
  

View from our hotel room

On the walk back from dinner, everyone else wanted to stop by a store except for me.  However, when I got back to the hotel, I realized I was locked out of the hotel room.  I took the opportunity to spend a little alone time that evening warming up from the chilly day by the fire in the hotel bar sipping a local cider from Speight's Brewery.  Sometimes traveling can be so rough.......