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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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left Fijij bright and early on Tuesday morning and arrived in Christchurch around teatime, slight delay leaving Fiji and then missed our connection in Auckland - seems global village booked us on the summer timetable and Qantas are operating their summer timetable! Oh well! gave us plenty of time at Auckland to book a campervan and stock up on free maps and travel guides!
the shuttle from Christshurch is the best we've used and as we didn't have any accomadation booked just asked the driver to drop us near some hostels.... again probably one of the best places we've stsayed - Stonehursts range of accom from dorm beds up to self contained holiday flats and lodges. had a quick walk atround town and a couple of games of pool and then off to bed with a pizza!
Wednesday was Anzac day so not much was open in the town. headed out to pick up campervan we'd arranged to meet them at 11 (tyhe place was officially shut for Anzac day) but when we got there there was no-one around except a big rottweiler. they turned up about 10 mins later but had forgotten to bring the keys with them!!!! so hung around for about anpther hour then off on the road to Hanmer Springs. Which is beautiful. A great little holiday village place, with Thermal pools and sulphur pools etc. it was too late to go in the pools by the time we got there so just had a mooch around and stocked up at the supermarket. Then back on the road heading for Kaikoura. We'd heard great things about ot from a couple of people in Fiji and it's supposed to be the best place on the south islands to swim with fur seals and wild dolphins. got there pretty late and found a "freecamping" park. Eventually figured out how to get the gas working! but we're still struggling with the electrics......
Wandered into Kaikoura town first thing this morning and while it look pretty nice, it's not a big place and doesn't seem to have loads happening besides the seal and dolphin swims. neither fo us went for the swim.... it's pretty grey and cold today although yesterday was glorious sunshine. maybe we'll come back this way if we have any spare time at the end of the trip.
left kaikoura and headed for Blenheim, which was a pretty big town, and right in the middle of the Marlborough wine making area, drove past the Montana Winery! and on to Nelson, which is where we are now. Looks like a really nice town and it's by the sea, so we're going to find somewhere to park up for the night and check it all out tomorrow.
previous travel blog entry
Wadey says:
We've just checked the site again since we were thinking about you both (5/1/07). Van looks cool but can't see the furry dice....Here the weather is crap so don't feel too bad about the cloudy weather in NZ. We're looking forward to the next update! By the way Barnsley beat the drop but Leeds didn't (not that you are in least interested!). Enjoy Blenheim (guess you are somewhere else already by now) !! LOL M + V