Peninsula Banks

14.11.22

We wake up in the middle of bird chirping around 5:30 am. Our first breakfast in the camper van with coffee and toast. So far, so good.

Since we still haven't heard anything about our luggage, we decide to drive to the Banks Peninsula, which is in front of Christchurch. The peninsula is named after the English botanist Joseph Banks, who was a companion of James Cook. A really good idea, as we find out, although we actually wanted to head south.

We are immediately impressed by the landscape and fjords as we pass Lake Forsyth and Little River.

What great views!!!

After a detour to WAnui Beach,

we continue to Akarona.

A small town that dates back to the whaling times. In 1838, French and German settlers established themselves here.

There are many colorful, nicely renovated wooden houses and a special kind of small dolphins that are only about 1.50 meters tall.

The coffee in NZL is really delicious and even though we haven't had new clothes and a shower for 4 days now, we dare to go to a cafe.

We are slowly getting pretty upset that no one from Air New Zealand is contacting us.

We drive over a scenic loop on the top of the peninsula.

The highest point of the peninsula is Mount Herbert, with an elevation of 919 meters and the mountains are covered with yellow flowering gorse here and the view from here is also gigantic.

We continue to Littelton, a harbor town with an international port. You wouldn't expect that in this corner at all.

Since Littelton is not very charming, we drive further on a mountain pass road to Sumner.

A seaside resort near Christchurch. Here we see the first really beautiful beach.

But since you are not allowed to camp anywhere here, we continue to New Brighton, where there is nothing going on at all, probably because we are still in the off-season and it's also quite windy and cold. We find a nice parking spot with a sea view where we stop and cook noodles while looking at the sea.

We try once again in vain to reach Air New Zealand about our luggage. Unfortunately, without success and always in the queue. One minute costs just under 3 €😂

We are slowly getting pretty frustrated and wondering what to do tomorrow if the luggage still hasn't arrived. We have been offered to spend 100 NZL dollars = 60 € on shopping. Unfortunately, that won't get you very far here. But we also don't feel like wasting another day in Christchurch. Our whole travel planning is already for nothing.

So we drink New Zealand wine by the sea and spend the night with the sound of the sea behind the dunes.