South Island Day 1 : 24 March 2018
Cloudy, showers, 21•C
It was a cloudy, showery day when we landed in Christchurch, at 12:30pm, on a direct flight from Napier. We grabbed our bags and headed for the shuttle area for our ride to the Maui / Britz / Mighty campervan depot to pick up our home of for the next 2 weeks.
After arriving and filling in the necessary forms ( all electronic these days ) we were shown around our van ( Mighty Deuce, $1,980 for 14 nights ), we jumped in and headed off in search of lunch and supplies. Drove the short distance to Northlands Mall, parked up and headed for the food court, then to Pak n Save for groceries ($100 later... ). Back out to the van and around the corner to the Mega Mitre 10, bought gumboots and gloves. We were also looking for cheap camping chairs as we had declined the rental of them with the van ( $18 per chair ) but we couldn't find any, so off to another mall ( Northwood ) to the Warehouse, still no luck. So we gave up and decided to have a look tomorrow on our travels, as it was now 4pm and we needed to head to camp for the night.
So we drove back past the airport then south on SH1, out through Prebbleton, and then to Lakeside Domain on the southwestern edge of Lake Ellesmere ( free camp, thanks Welwyn DC, just a toilet block anda lot of space ), parked up in the sunshine and relaxed. We then opened up the back of the van to find that there were 2 camping chairs in there, and a table as well ( none of which we had paid for ), which was a bonus. The moral of the story is check the van thoroughly before deciding what you need to buy.
Relaxed for a bit, watching the showers skirt around us, had tea, then drove to a church about 15 minutes away to shoot sunset, which was a bit of a flop, but we met some nice horses. Back to camp in the rain, then coffee then bed.