After the not so comfortable flight over Sydney, we arrived in Christchurch at 1am. Immigration was quick and easy. We waited for the luggage for a while. Unfortunately, a piece of luggage from Tracy didn’t made it from Australia. We had booked Jucy’s accommodation near the airport and so we felt into our bed around 2 am. On the next day we enjoyed our breakfast and bought our New Zealand Mobile Numbers at the airport. We took over our campervan and bought some groceries. We checked in at the campsite. Soon we walked to the train station to pick up Andi. We made BBQ for dinner and celebrated the reunion of the three musketeers.

After the first night in our camper we strolled through Christchurch and bought the Christmas crackers which are common here for Christmas. A lot has happened and developed since I came here to Christchurch 5 years ago. The city blooms again after the 2011 earthquake. Here you can also see a lot of beautiful street art on the walls.

With our camper Sam (Sam from Lord of the Rings) we drove to the village Akaroa. This city was the first as well as the last French colony here in New Zealand. Which you can also tell from the street names. In the afternoon we drove to a Freedom campsite in Timaru from where you could see penguins on the beach.

We spent December 24th in Timaru doing Christmas shopping and fixing the gas from our camper. Tracy did a great job, so we went to a brewery and enjoyed a good beer and a delicious lunch. In the evening we drove to a place by the sea. Our Christmas dinner consisted of spare ribs from the grill and various canapes. The crackers weren’t missing either, so we had a cozy Christmas evening.

On Christmas day we went to the round stones of Moaraki. As with my first visit here, these were great to look at. Unfortunately, it was raining and so we soon went to Dunedin to a Freedom campsite. The city here was dead on Christmas Day and everything was closed except for two cafes. The following day the city filled with life. In the morning we went to the cinema. Later on, we strolled through the city and had some nice lunch. We continued to a very beautiful beach by the sea. Unfortunately, it was raining and we could only see the beach from our camper.

Fortunately, we already wanted to book for the next night in Te Anau. We called several campsites and nearly all were fully booked. At the end we found a really nice one. On the way to Te Anau we visited Nugget Point where you could watch sea lions playing. We drive across the South Island which was accompanied by landscapes such as Scotland, Ireland and Switzerland. We went into the mountain area where we arrived at the beautiful village of Te Anau, which is located directly on a lake. We booked the car trip to Milford Sound as well as the boat trip in the fjord. The drive there was nice. However, since our driver forgot three people and had to drive back again, we were too late for our cruise. He organized a trip for half an hour later. So, we enjoyed the beautiful landscape on the border of the Tasman Sea with a beer. We had beautiful weather and a clear sky which is very rare here. After dinner we were able to enjoy a sauna and a hotpot at our camping site and thus recover from yesterday’s very cold night.

Via Manapouri we drove towards Queenstown to Lake Wakatipu and spent the night at a free campsite. We had a delicious breakfast with a beautyful view right on the lake near the village of Frankton. Arrived on our camping site in the backyard of a hostel in Queenstown we walked around and enjoyed the city in fine weather. On the last day of the year we took the gondola up to Queenstown’s local mountain, which is simply called the Skyline Gondola. From there we went down with Luges several times. We booked our New Year’s dinner in a blue canoe. The atmosphere, the wine and the Polynesian food were perfect. We went further into a pub which had a terrace. All but a handful of people went to the lake to watch the fireworks. We looked enjoyed this firework from the balcony of the pub while we toasted with beer.

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