Day 1 - 4 (January 28 - 31) - Arrival, Hotel, Our Motorhome

The journey to New Zealand went surprisingly well with our 2 little children. We (or just me as the mom) had been worried beforehand about how tiring it would be and how to keep the kids entertained for so long.

From Cologne, we took the train to Frankfurt. We were heavily loaded with a giant board bag, 2 suitcases, 2 backpacks, a carrier for transporting Mattis, and a baby carrier for Lea. But thanks to the great trolleys at the airport, which were right next to the train platform, the transport was initially made easier for us. However, we had to take the Skytrain to the other terminal where such trolleys were not allowed. That got us really sweating. Mattis also got us sweating, as he wanted to play tag with us with all his heart, especially at moments when it didn't fit at all. That was fun. But with our excitement packed, we went along with the game. With our planned buffer, we arrived at the gate on time and as a family, we were even allowed to board the airplane first. The attentive and child-friendly service from Emirates continued throughout the rest of the journey. You can only recommend this airline.

Our travel time including transfers was 29:30 hours. We had one transfer in Dubai. In Sydney, we had a so-called technical stop just for refueling.

Surprisingly, the time flew by during the flights. Either there was something to eat (which was really good and Mattis got an extra kids menu) or we watched movies (Mattis probably watched The Lion King about 10 times) or we slept a bit or we explored the airplane. The children did really well. You hardly noticed Lea and Mattis was busy with his Lion King.

We were very lucky with our seats. The seats with the baby seat had extreme legroom - I could stretch my legs all the way to the wall in front of me. The A380 was simply a great airplane with plenty of space and very quiet in the air.

It was so cute how excited the stewards and stewardesses were about Lea. One of them even "borrowed" Lea to show her colleagues. Everyone was in love with her because she was beaming so much. As he put it so nicely - "She is smiling with her eyes."

On January 30, we finally arrived in New Zealand - Christchurch at 2 pm (local time; in Germany, it is 12 hours earlier ;-)) and felt really good. The sun was shining outside and we knew that we were expecting summer in a dreamlike country.

Just 5 minutes before landing, Mattis quickly fell asleep from exhaustion. Tim then carried him and he just kept on sleeping, no matter where we put him down. He only woke up again at the baggage claim and enthusiastically helped me pull the trolley with the suitcases. It was cute.

We were picked up from the airport by the hotel shuttle. We had booked a hotel (Commodore Airport Hotel) near the airport for the first night. That was a very good decision. When we arrived at the hotel, we were only able to enjoy our arrival and the comfortable queen-size beds, take a shower, and then we fell asleep at 4 pm during a "short rest". Tim, Mattis, and I woke up again at 10 pm and got up. We explored the beautiful garden of the hotel and the hotel bar. We were all very happy about the warm summer air outside and a nice drink to end the journey.

At midnight, the three of us went back to sleep. Oh man, it was so nice to just fall into these dreamlike beds. In the morning, we woke up well-rested at around 7:30 am. It's crazy that we wake up almost at the same time as in Germany, even though we should have a complete jet lag with this time difference. But we all don't really have a jet lag. You can only see it in Mattis' eye rings that he lacks sleep, and I feel a bit confused today and I am super slow in everything I do (as Tim notices).

We had a great time at the hotel all morning. First, we had a delicious and extensive breakfast with yogurt, fresh fruit, bacon, pastries... Then we went swimming in the hotel pool and whirlpool. We and especially Lea and Mattis loved it and were so excited.

In the afternoon, we were able to pick up our motorhome. We rented the Britz Discovery, a model with a length of 7.10m, a kitchen, a bathroom, a rear seating area, a fold-down bed, and huge panoramic windows. Definitely enough space for the 4 of us. In reality, the model was exactly as expected. After a very nice introduction, the adventure can now begin. Tim immediately drives the motorhome with confidence and total relaxation. I'm a bit nervous, especially because of the unfamiliar left-hand traffic. Mattis and Lea fell asleep in their car seats immediately after we started driving. Tim then went straight to do the first major grocery shopping.

We spent our first night with freedom camping in the parking lot of the North Beach Surf Lifesaving Club by the sea in Christchurch. We were the largest motorhome here. There were only a few other small campers here. We only had to transfer the children to the large fold-down bed. They were so tired that they just kept on sleeping. On our first evening in the motorhome, we sat comfortably in our seating area and enjoyed the silence. We all slept together on the top bed for the first night, looking forward to the next morning and the panoramic view.