From Christchurch to Akaroa from 18.02. to 22.02.2017

01/18/2017 Rain. Rain, and more rain. Nothing would describe this day better. From Greymouth, it took six hours to get to Waikari Reserve Campground. The long drive brought my mood down and even the coffee in between couldn't change the fact that I was getting tired from the gray weather. When we arrived, fortunately it wasn't raining anymore. Only a cool wind had come up, but the sun had fought through the clouds and was shining, albeit not warm. While Jasmin stayed at the campground, I took a short walk after the long drive. Some exercise is always good, especially after sitting for six hours.

01/19/2017 During the night from the 18th to the 19th, it stormed so hard that I woke up several times because of the car shaking. The next morning, we discovered that the wind had ripped off the rain cover of the car windows and it was now broken on the ground. To make sure if we could continue driving like this, we went to the nearest workshop. However, the mechanic said that the car didn't urgently need the protector and we could continue driving without any problems. So we went to the nearest library to use the Wi-Fi there. We used that to write to Wwoof farms in Queenstown. After we had crossed that off our list, we drove back to our previous campground.

01/20/2017 On this day, we finally set off for Christchurch. The weather was finally better - the sun was shining - and we were lucky that a free street festival was going on in the city at the time. We watched some artists and visited the Canterbury Museum. I also bought a new pair of sunglasses and enjoyed the last rays of evening sun in the botanical garden.

Unfortunately, the city was so destroyed by the earthquake in November that there were construction sites everywhere. Maybe that was the reason why the city didn't seem so attractive to us.

01/21/2017 Since I couldn't find my toiletry bag anywhere in the car the previous evening, and the faint suspicion in me grew that it might have fallen out of the car, I had to angrily buy a new toothbrush, new toothpaste, a new hairbrush, new face tissues, and new razors the next morning. Fortunately, I had kept shampoo and conditioner separately. After that, we set off for the small French-inspired town of Akaroa. The small tourist town definitely had its charm. We looked around in small shops, ate ice cream, and walked to the lighthouse. In the evening, we camped at Okains Bay. For me, one of the most beautiful beaches in New Zealand, which is why I sat outside by the sea alone for a long time in the evening, even if the strong, cold wind didn't make it very pleasant.

01/22/2017 The bad weather had returned. Rain and fog made our planned hike for the day fall through. Somewhat depressed, we sat down in a French cafe and had lunch there. I had a crepe with Nutella and Jasmin had a sausage roll. In the afternoon, we went to the cinema and watched "Lion" - such a great movie, we can only recommend it - before we made our way to a free campground to spend the night.

Jana