#vanlife Christchurch to Timaru

January 14

Sam:

After a brief, early-morning stopover in Nadi, Fiji, we took off on a short (4 hour) flight to Christchurch.

Tomorrow morning (this is our joke because New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of our time at home and we missed a whole day while traveling), I arrived in Christchurch and took a shuttle to the camper van center. After we got our camper, Mom and Dad both had a hot shower because they hadn’t had a shower in a while. On the way to our camper a British couple gave us some supplies that they hadn’t used on their trip. We unpacked our backpacks and suitcases, and we were off!

Charlotte:

We went to The Warehouse and got groceries at Countdown, we also got the CamperMate app. It’s an app that tells us different campsites around the whole country. Then we went on a road outside of Christchurch for our first freedom camping. We went to a place called Chamberlains Ford Reserve. It was nice and had clean bathrooms near us. Our spot was right by a river with soft grass (though it didn’t need to be soft because we had a campervan, not a tent).

Our campervan will be our home for the next 22 days. I sleep in the loft above the driver’s seat. Sam sleeps on a bed that is seats and our dining table during the day. Mom and Dad sleep at the back. There is also a pretty good sized kitchen, a bathroom with a toilet, sink, and shower, a big couch and table at the back, and lots of cupboards. We have a bin to store our toys and books.

January 15

Sam:

This morning we slept in until lunchtime because of the big plane ride, so for lunch we had some soup and grilled cheese. We packed all our stuff in the camper and went to the next campground in Timaru, which was about two hours away. We stopped at a beach that was very nice with warm water, only a bit windy, and had lots of shells and driftwood. When we got to the freedom lot, Charlotte and I went to play while mom and Dad made supper.

Charlotte:

While Mom was making dinner Sam and I played safely in the exercise court when we were playing we saw people playing frisbee golf. We went back to the camper and Dad met a local guy named Mark who chatted with us for awhile. He gave us some good travel tips and then gave Dad some fresh fish that he had caught.

Then we had a dinner of chicken, beef and fresh fish tacos. They were so good.

When it was getting dark, we went outside to see blue penguins because they only came outside at night. They were so cute and so little! The two babies were fighting like Sam and I. It was so funny! Another thing about them is that they are sometimes called fairy penguins. One surprising thing was how cold it got at night. We went back to the camper at 11pm.