Rocky start to beautiful New Zealand

As our plane landed in New Zealand, we were all excited about the adventure that awaited us - 6 weeks traveling through New Zealand with a camper.

Our camper was not a luxury vehicle, it was a small Toyota bus.

But we were all very excited to explore the country with this bus, although we did not yet know what the first few days had in store for us...

In short, they did not go as planned.

Since our camper was considered 'self-contained', we had the opportunity to stay overnight in many places and did not always have to go to an expensive camping site. 'Self-contained' means that our camper is equipped (with running water, a toilet, and a waste tank) so that we were not dependent on public services.

Of course, we were not allowed to stay overnight everywhere, but we could camp in some parking lots and bays.

So for the first night, we chose a free parking lot near the airport (Lyttelton).

However, we were more awake at night than we could sleep, because some locals did not like that we wanted to sleep there. They decided to scare us and kept racing their cars with loud engine noise all night long.

Well, everything turned out fine and we still felt very comfortable in our newly settled camper. And the view we had in the morning was priceless - bright sunshine, a harbor, a large lake, and mountains surrounding this lake.

New day, new luck. We were really looking forward to exploring Christchurch and set off towards the city with great anticipation.

But as life sometimes goes, that did not go completely smoothly either.

It is not easy to drive in left-hand traffic for the first time in a city, and one thing led to another and we had a car accident. Good news - everything is fine! Neither us nor the other driver, with whom we collided, were hurt.

We were fully insured, so it was no problem to continue our trip after a few days and with a new camper.

We had 5 beautiful and exciting days. Visited an art museum, went hiking in Akaroa, explored Dunedin, and one of our personal highlights: hiked to Sandfly Beach.

Sandfly Beach is a beach where you can observe seals and penguins in their natural habitat. It was a beautiful day for all of us, with crystal-clear water and penguins trying to conquer the waves, and seals stretching out in the sun.

The next day, we had a road trip planned and on the agenda was visiting Nugget Point and Kaka Point.

But our streak of bad luck was not over yet. Our rental service called us in the morning and demanded a very large sum of money from us. They justified this by saying that the old insurance, which had already been paid for, could not be transferred to the new camper.

After long consideration, we all decided unanimously to return the camper and switch to a car. Not only was the insurance one of the decisive reasons, but also many other aspects.

Although we did not get any money back and had to pay half of the insurance again, we felt that it couldn't go on like this. Our streak of bad luck had to finally end.

We still went on the road trip and did not let these unique natural events be taken away from us.

The next day, we picked up our car and booked the first hostels.

Our journey was now different.

The short but memorable time with the camper was definitely an adventure. We were all aware that we would miss our independence, cozy evenings wrapped in our blankets, and simply our little fine mobile home. But we exchanged all that for a warm home, a proper bed, and a bathroom.

With full energy and excitement, we are heading straight to Chapter 2 of our New Zealand journey - New Zealand 2.0. What will await us?