Well it that time again when the bags are packed and ready at the front door and the alarm clock is set for 4.30am. Not much sleep goes on as you are excited about where we are going and what adventures we will find. I say we because this time I have the family in tow which includes my Wife and 9 year old Son. My Son finally got to sleep around 10.30 as he was bouncing off the walls making sure his bag had all his favourite things and all was in the right order. He is very organised and must get it from his Mum 😊
The alarm goes off and it’s action stations with breakfast being prepared and last minuet checks being made. Right, washing ups done and bags are packed and it’s time to hit the road! A nice 1 and a quarter hour drive and we are at Andrews Parking at which point we were greeted and our bags were taken to the mini bus for transport to the international terminal. Pay the bill for the parking and we are off on the bus with an older couple who were excited to be finally going to Canada and an Alaskan cruise for a total of 40 days. We showed our envy as this is where we were hoping to go this year, but it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe in a few years.
We check ourselves in at the airport and after sending our rather heavy suitcases on their way, we made our way to the security station and after being explosive tested, went the next check point. Things have changed over the last couple of years with immigration and you do not need to fill in a departure card anymore and they have these fancy machines that scan your passport and then you stand in front of a camera and it scans your face and away you go. Glad I had a shave 😊
We found a café and coffee shop and feed our Son as he was too excited to eat before we left and I certainly needed a coffee 😊 A quick browse at the duty free and we find our gate and wait for boarding to commence. A quick rock paper scissors determines who will have the window seat and off we go.
So we are winging our way across the large expanse of water called the Tasman Seq and we are thinking about what we want to experience while we are in NZ. We are fortunate enough that this is our eighth trip to NZ and we are well aware that NZ will only allow us to go where it wants us to. That is because NZ in winter has some very dramatic weather conditions and when it rains or snows, it doesn’t do it in halves. The west coast, which I am very interested in, as it has some very rugged coastline and dramatic sky and has an average rain fall of in excess of 5 meters a year as opposed to the east coast with around 30 cm or so. So will check the weather conditions tonight and make our decision from there.
Well we had a great flight and after getting our bags and making it through customs, me made our way to the Spark shop to get our travel SIM to use in NZ. We called Apollo motor homes to come and get us from the airport and 40 mins later they arrived which seemed like eternity when it's 5 degrees and a slight breeze!! After about an hour or so we were on our way and after a long 5 minuet drive, we stopped at our nights accommodation at the North South Holiday Park. This park is popular as it located very close the airport and motor home rental agencies and 2 years ago on our last stop here they had little store where you could purchase food items like tomato soup and bread but they do they off that service anymore. So we had no choice but to go to Burger King across the road for dinner and I am still feeling ill after eating it.
Well we then came back to the motor home and made our beds and got a little more organised and we have decided to visit the Botanical Gardens and Museum In Christchurch tomorrow as the west coast weather is less than desirable.
Goodbye day 1 :)