It was time for Blondie and Brownie to visit a new country. We were so close to it anyway so why not jump in the plane and go to New Zealand!
One week before departure we did not even know that we would go to this amazing country. But we did! At about 00:15... It was a short flight of about 3 hours. But you can imagine that if you fly at night and arrive at 6 o'clock local time you have a long day ahead!
First, we had to wait until we received our new van. We were able to rent one for a nice price for our 3-week road trip. We were picked up by a "wicked" female (we're just exchanging the 'no worries' for 'wicked') from the airport. Unfortunately, our car was not ready and had to be refreshed, but until that time we could use another one to get some groceries.
Once we picked up the car we drove to our first "camping" immediately, had a baguette and then we really needed a power nap after the, short but overnight flight.
At our picnictable we had to get used to the wind. We had to hold on to everything, but hey we were on an island.
The next day we had bad luck with the weather: cold and rainy! So we spent a lot of time this day in the car, speechless and with open mouths. IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL HERE!!!
All the colors of green are greener then we're used to, mountains in the background with snowtops, then suddenly a field full of flowers, rocks, clear blue lakes, wow... we can continue for a while. Just Google it people! Lake Tekapo or something like that ;-)
In NZ, it is very stricktly checked for tourists who camp ''wild''. Having spoken to a number of people who had a ticket for this, we certainly did not dare to do this like we did in Aussie. So we were looking for a campsite every afternoon... these were not the campsites we were used to. Most of them are just on an open field without any facilities.
Soooo, a nice shower? Forget about it! And this for $13 pp.
Every morning we tried to sneak away from the campsite, so we could avoid the costs, as early as possible (okay, as far as possible for us).
Unfortunately, this mission failed every day, because they just waited with their money bag at the gate.
At Lake Tekapo (so beautiful...) we have chosen to go to the hot pools, after 4 days. Not only to enjoy a nice sauna, the hot pools themselves and the beautiful view (hmmm... in the brochure it looked way better...), but also to be able to shower afterwards. Backpackers life!
After that, it was really time to get us into prehistory. The campsite we had was again on a lawn, beside a lake, with a sort of toilet and last but not least we had to tap our own water... Yes, we have burned calories here to brush our teeth and to do our dishes. Of course we had a good laugh again.
It was so cold that night! We were lucky enough to lie in our car but we did feel very sorry for the people who were in their tents next to us. Several times we checked that night if our noses were still alive and hanging...
As cold as it had been that night, the weather was very good the next day. We enjoyed Lake Tekapo by visiting multiple viewpoints and simply staring at the view with a good coffee or hot chocolate. Where you look, you look... It's all beautiful here.
Hope you guys enjoyed this blog and the pictures. More about Our road trip through New Zealand tomorrow.
Kisses and hugs for our fellow steemians!