Little river

Kia Ora!

Today we set foot on New Zealand soil for the first time. The flight from Singapore to Christchurch was turbulent, and sleep came only in patches, so we are a bit ragged.

The entry process was pleasantly uneventful. The electronic passport control was similar to that in Frankfurt, where we scanned the passport to check the linked, electronically filled-out entry declaration. A quick question about what hiking equipment we had with us and how clean it was (of course, it was virtually new), and after scanning the luggage, we were already outside.

We picked up the rental car, and just three near misses later, we got accustomed to driving on the left side of the road. The left side of the body seems to be less engaged while driving; even the turn signal is on the right. This likely leads to an increased windshield wiper usage for all rental cars up front.😅

After a short stop at Lake Forsyth, we reached our accommodation for the next three nights. The small farm offers alpacas, one sheep, and 90% of the time absolute peace from civilization noise.

At 24 degrees, we did take a small detour to the sea. However, wind gusts of strength 7 to 8 made the stay there quite uncomfortable.

To end the day, we fed the alpacas and took a short walk. That will do.