Alpacas, Akaroa & Christchurch

OMG!  We are arriving at the conclusion of our NZ adventures. I’ve spent most of my prep work and brain power on NZ that I almost forgot about Australia. Now I need to start shifting into an Oz mindset.

We’re making our way up towards Christchurch. One more farmstay seemed to be necessary and we found this cute alpaca farm about 30 min outside CC. Sofia, the German student living on the farm, gave us a tour and let us feed the alpacas. They make great easy pets. You need to have at least 2 so they don’t get lonely. Something to think about. Think of all the snoods I could make. Snoods for everyone!

They gave us free reign of the place so anytime we felt moved to hang out with alpacas we were welcome into the paddock and so of course we did often. The stay was short and we made one more last minute decision to change course to Akaroa. I felt like we needed a bonus seaside experience and this place was calling to me.

  

   

 

    

  

 

Akaroa is a little seaside village past Christchurch on the Banks Peninsula. It was settled by the French and was thus by far the best food we ate while in NZ.

We spent some time at the beach and sadly parted with our boogie boards, spades & buckets and left them for other travelers.  On our last day we took a boat cruise to find hector dolphins, the rarest and smallest of the dolphins.  There was a dog on the boat whose job it was to scout for pods. He’d get very excited and run around when he found them.

 

   

  

We made it to Christchurch in the afternoon and performed another one of our city blitzes. Punting on the Avon (except we canoed), botanical gardens, tram, dinner. Despite the warnings that Christchurch had dramatically changed due to the earthquakes they seem to be doing a bang up job rebuilding it and I thought it was a great city.

   

The rest of the evening and following day was spent packing.  6 weeks in NZ and 5 weeks traveling in Jeff meant mucho work to do. We left things behind, we shipped a box home, and most importantly we had to say goodbye to our wheeled friend.  If you are ever considering a campervan trip I recommend it immensely.  It’s an amazing, convenient way to travel and the best family bonding experience.

E noho rā, Kiwis!