Akaroa

And thus it began: our epic journey around the South Island. Chapter one involved picking up the campervan in Christchurch and spending a day provisioning before camping at a not-so-fancy campground near the edge of the city. Looking back through the pictures, I'm not surprised that we didn't take too many at this stage in the game. We faced a number of questions: should the kids sleep separately to avoid waking one another? Would the beds be comfortable? How does the electrical system work? Would this end in divorce?

Lunch in the van, day two.

Day two: our first road trip. We drove about 2 hours to the small coastal town of Akaroa, founded by some Frenchmen a couple hundred years ago. French settlements are pretty rare in these parts, and the town has retained some French heritage as well as significant charm. It is, of course, beautiful.

Heading to town.

We spent two days here before heading back to Christchurch. At this point we were still getting our technique down with the campervan and it was nice to stay in the same spot for more than a day. The majority of our trip involved moving every day (which may sound easy with a campervan, though in reality in involves a bit of work).

Downtown Akaroa and the hills beyond.

Quinn on the beach.

We eventually settled on a system where Amy and I alternated sleeping spots; one night with Amelia in the top bunk and the next with Quinn down below. To make extra sure that Amelia doesn't fall from the open-ended bunk, we slept backwards with our heads tucked at the end of the narrow upper compartment. It was cozier than it sounds and this was definitely the night Amy and I both look forward to as Quinn is a restless and often violent sleeper. We couldn't trust the kids to sleep together because there are too many dangerous things for Quinn to get into, and they'd wake each other up anyway.

The view from our campsite. Yeah, the hike back up was interesting.

We started with a pattern of driving during the kids' naptime, and kept the drives shorter than 2 hours . This allows Amy and I to see the scenery during the day while theoretically letting the kids sleep through the roadtrip. At first, this worked out fairly well, giving us 90 minutes of peace but usually ending in about 20 minutes of hell once the kids awoke. By week two, the kids had adapted unbelievably well and were little road-trip machines.

Casa de Lovelace, aptly dubbed "white bird campervan" by Amelia.


After a few days we headed back through Christchurch on our way to Arthur's Pass. While in Christchurch, we stopped at a wild game preserve at the edge of town. The best part about this place (as with the Wellington Zoo) was the low-key approach. We were able to get very close to the animals and the kids got to feed giraffes for the second time since our arrival in NZ.



We left the game preserve pretty late and the kids were falling asleep in their carseats- this did not bode well as a late afternoon nap for them means a looong night for us. We hastily found a spot to park the van, in the parking lot of a dirtbike park at the edge of town. It was just as glamerous as it sounds, and gave us a nice view of an interesting segment of NZ society as the dirtbikers filed in for a late-evening tear around the park.


ATV park EXCITING! Let's hope the camping spots improve from here...