Flight to Christchurch & RV Rental
We woke up knowing that we had to be at the airport by 1:30. That meant we had to return the rental van first, and we were more than an hour and a half from the airport. We hustled and managed to be out of our AirBnb by 745 AM, putting us square in rush hour, but with time to spare for it. Not being the Bay Area, we made good time and ended up at the car return place with about half an hour extra, which was eaten up by small children eating up their snacks in the airport.
We got onto our Jetstar airplane, so named because they have a jet plane, but the plane part needs to have a star indicating that the interior of the plane is a shitty torture device and not really a plane. On the bright side, I was only crammed into my terrible, small, uncomfortable seat for an hour. We ordered lunch on the plane, but they forgot to give it to us, so we got some cold toasties to take with us off the plane. Thanks, JetStar.
We collected our stroller and got to our RV rental place about an hour later. They made us watch videos about how to use our RV and how we have to drive on the left in NZ. I expected them to be more RED ASPHALT and less YouTube, but some of the information was actually useful, though we could have probably read it all in 1/4 the time.
The RV is surprisingly spacious. We have 3 distinct bed areas, a kitchen, bathroom, and I have enough space to stand up in most of the RV. I only have to slouch a little bit in the bathroom, which is a huge bonus, considering I've been in American RVs and I expected far worse. Considering this will be our home for the next 2 weeks, I'm feeling pretty lucky and excited.
It took us forever to get the car seats set up for the kids. There's literally no good place to properly install a rear-facing car seat, as there are no anchor points or tethers for that configuration. We did it by tethering the baby's seat to the passenger seat's mounts, which feel solid enough. We had to use the fancy clips since the seat belts don't ratchet properly, but now that we're done, we feel pretty confident that they're buckled in properly.
New Zealand has a cool concept called "Freedom Camping." Anywhere that's public land and not specifically labeled as no camping is available for camping. This seems to include most parks, picnic areas, parking lots, etc. It's a fundamental part of the Kiwi lifestyle—the idea that people should explore their country and see more of it.
We stopped by the Pak n' Save to get groceries, went to McDonalds for food and to use their playplace, and stopped into a Kmart for some wellies and warm pjs for the baby. We got groceries, but it's spring here now, and nobody's is stocking winter weather gear anymore, so we failed at boots and pjs.
Since we were gassed up, charged up, and empty of all the problems that RVs have, we decided to take advantage of a public campsite just south of Christchurch next to a place called Governor's Bay. We used an Android app from Rankers that lists all of the various campsites, both free and paid for the whole country. The spot was easy to find and was by a very beautiful beach right on the bay called Allendale Reserve.
I've never done RV camping before. It's a little surreal to be in a place that has everything we need and is also mobile. I cooked on the stove, we ate at the table, we set up the beds, it's all just so much Legos and houses, which is a lot of fun. I don't know how the next 2 weeks will go, but for now, we've got more than we need, and that's pretty cool.