We left Sydney on QF139 at 5:45pm, a 737-800 that flies non-stop across the Tasman Sea to Christchurch. Here’s what you see along the way (actual photo looking out the window).
That’s because there is absolutely nothing out there but ocean and to be honest it’s a little unnerving. New Zealand is 2,100km off the east coast of Australia, and just 2,800km from Antarctica. Weird. We made it across the Tasman Sea and lost two hours in the process as New Zealand is +2 from Syndey. We are now +17 hours from Chicago. If it’s 2pm on Monday here then it is 9pm on Sunday night in Chicago.
Anyway, we arrived Christchurch at around 11pm, got our car rented, bought our SIM card, and then got to our humble abode for the evening at the Airport Gateway Motor Lodge.
It’s not a Park Hyatt but it is situated on a park! We aren’t staying in Christchurch because the town was levelled in a series of earthquakes in 2010-11 and they haven’t finished rebuilding. With so much else to see we had to pass on it. But we did have to get up at 6am in order to be on the road by 7am for our five hour drive south to Dunedin.
The reason we were in a rush was because we wanted to join a tour that left central Dunedin at 1pm for the Otago Peninsula. The Peninsula is famous as a breeding ground for albatross (but not right now), water birds that are native to New Zealand, fur seals, and then most importantly the endangered yellow-eyed penguin.
Unfortunately it has been raining hard since we arrived with a 60km wind, with gusts to 120km, blowing in off the Pacific. So we weren’t certain there would even be a tour.
We arrived Dunedin at noon and went direcly to the Tourism Centre to sign up for the tour. Fortunately it’s running today despite the weather and it turns out we can begin the tour at 2:45 instead because they offer a mini tour that cuts three hours from the larger tour. Perfect! We now had a couple of hours to kill, so dropped off our laundry at a launderette, checked into our hotel, and then spent a little time in central Dunedin having lunch.
Here’s a pic of our Toyota Highlander in front of the hotel. Our room is in the upper right-hand corner of the pic with a balcony overlooking the beach.
Here’s what the beach looks like today. Waves are raging.
Back in central Dunedin, everyone was wearing their wellies or boots and carrying umbrellas.
In the next post you’ll see our wet and windy trip to see the penguins.
