We had a nice sleep-in and then headed off to Nelson Saturday Market in the centre for browsing and having breakfast.

You call that a knife?

Don’t worry little fella, we got a home for you!

There was quite a lot of regular junk but some nicer things as well, we had a fresh breakfast from a food stall. I really liked one artist who made various animals or items from recycled machine parts and Mona convinced me that we should get a really cool piece of art so I picked out one old school robot which Mona then bought me.  Of course she was right and I would have regretted it if we didn’t get something from that store.

After strolling around enough and buying some licorice and a headband for Juni we headed back to the motel for unloading and recharging. We left the car and took a stroll along the beach with some fika. It was quite windy which on the other hand the kitesurfers didn’t mind but we looped back after enjoying our fika in a wind-protected clearing.

Sipping refreshments outside our studio apartment…

Next up was dinner, so we went to “Smugglers Pub and Café” down the street but couldn’t get a table on the inside but were put on the waiting list. It quickly became clear that since All Blacks, the national pride, were playing the Australian Wallabies that no real Kiwi would leave their table until the game finished. Not sure I got the hang of rules (I gave up understanding the scoring system after a team lost five points for some reason) but it was clearly a important match for the locals and “we” won to everybody’s delight making the All Blacks setting just another record of a winning streak.

When the game was finished we quickly got a table and orders had been made in advance so finally we could start eating – there was plenty to go around and in general a cosy place.

Just another beach

After the standard morning routine of packing and checking out we vowed to not stay one night per place in the future, at least not all the time.

By chance it turns out that Kathmandu had an outlet store only a few minutes by car from where we were so why not stop by there just to see if they have anything on sale? I got myself a hoodie and merino base layer shirt while Mona got a top and a hoodie as well. Parents got pants and a belt – it’s hard to walk out without buying something, but at least we tried!

We opted for breakfast at the now familiar Christchurch airport where I got Wanton-soup and others had bacon and egg or hamburgers – one to each own I guess. Time was suddenly running short and of course there was some hassle as we tried to get out of the parking (do not use short parking if you are intending to stay less than 2 hours – express is cheaper and actually works with foreign debit cards). A panic fueling later and we switched cars at Jucy. They were relaxed about us being a tad late and we were soon on our way up North along the east-coast.

Not far from Kaikoura we thought we spotted some seals and indeed there was a hangout for baby seal pups and their families at Ohau Waterfall Walk. Photos were taken and I restrained myself from telling the other tourists off who were a few meters from one seal and didn’t realize they should move further away. Well well, we drove on to Blenheim for lighter dinner.

In Blenheim we relied on TripAdvisor for a highly ranked Raupo Café, which had raving reviews of their cappuccinos and breakfasts so we went there. Well there it became clear there that we were now in dinner time however so we split up so parents had dinner nearby where fewer people ate fish while we had a nice dinner with excellent red wine for yours truly.

After dinner we decided Blenheim wasn’t really that great so we took our chances and drove towards Nelson and started to look for a place to stay on the road. Driving in valleys and realizing we would be there between 21:30-22 cut down on nice alternatives but in we gave Abelia Motor Lodge a call. Some old school haggling later we had two studios for two nights for a total of 450 NZD. Not bad given the reception gave up and it took three calls.

We arrived safely despite driving in the the dark the last hour (the concept of lamps in central roads at least seems unknown to the local population), checked in and called it a (long) day…

2Kg burger – free if you finish it

Woke up without Internet access, again.

In New Zealand apparently 1Gb data is deemed luxorious and more than enough for a day with two adults. I mean what could possibly go wrong with cloud backups of photos, regular backups of phones, updates to apps downloaded over wifi etc? In Twizel some time ago, we got 50Mb vouchers valid for one hour. I guess Spotify and Netflix aren’t popular around here…

Anwho, it was already pouring down rain – a good day for travel and driving north towards Christchurch to meet up with parents again.

We drove off, and took a detour to Geraldine for breakfast and Internet at a cafe where three young men did their third attempt of eating a supersize burger each. They did not make it this time either but gave it a good try.

While sipping chai’s we combined two important tasks, having Juni crawling herself tired for the remaining drive and sorting out cars for the rest of the trip. The latter turned out to a bit of a jig-saw-puzzle since it was not possible to extend the ones we had now, it ended up with a shared van “El Cheapo” – what could possibly go wrong – to Wellington and then there switch to two separate cars “Travella” which ought to be a bit larger than the one we’ve had so far.

My parents recommended a small cheese factory/shop, Talbot Forest Cheese, which they had visited in Geraldine and it was just a few minutes away so we stopped by for tastings and ended up driving towards Christchurch with more cheese than we likely can eat ourselves before leaving New Zealand…

Overall the timing of sleep with Juni quite well, we almost got to Christchurch before some complaining. Well there we checked in at the motel the parents found, had some Japanese takeaway (Zenbu), did a bit of laundry and chilled.