Today is Monday, December 8th and it’s time to go for one last walk in Christchurch’s magnificent Hagley Park before the 6 hour drive to Queenstown. On the walk I saw these ducklings and the attentive parents and had to snap a few baby pictures :-). Click on the pictures to open the full size image.
After they realized that I didn’t actually have any food, they all sat down really close to me and started preening themselves. Clearly, they are familar with people and only see us as a source of yummy food.
At 9am I got an Uber to the airport to pickup the rental car – a nice new Toyata RAV4 Hybrid – thank you EZi Car Rental company https://www.ezicarrental.co.nz/ for making the pickup efficient. During the paperwork portion of the pickup, they ask you to answer a few questions and sign the “exam” paper. It was a nice touch that New Zealand appears to have standardized on to help visiting drivers become aware of the traffic laws and some driving basics like drive on the left side of the road, and do not turn left on red. Red traffic lights mean stop and wait for the green signal – always. Check out the Drive Safe website ahead of time to ensure you are prepared https://www.drivesafe.org.nz/ There are a lot more bicycles on the road and in the cycle lanes here, so you must follow the traffic lights perfectly as even the cycle lanes have their own bike traffic lights and often the bikes get a green light to proceed and the car lane left turn arrow will be red to prevent you running someone over.
I returned to the hotel, packed the car and took off for Queensland. I stopped several times along the way to capture some pictures and videos of the scenery so my drive took close to 6 hours 30 minutes. The further south west I drove, the nicer the weather became, but it was windy again. Here are some photos of the journey.
Locating the AirBnb was straightforward, I just had to follow the steep squiggly line on the GPS up the side of a large hillside (mountain side?). Several switch-backs later, or U-bends as the NZ folk call them, I arrived at the standalone building. Per the instructions, this is the only home on the cul-de-sac, and at first sight it looked impressive, a 2 story home with a 3 car garage as the ground floor, perched high on the hill side overlooking Lake Wakatipu. Sometimes, things are not what they seem….
The instructions said to find the lockbox holding the key, and use the 4 digit code to open the box. The lockbox was said to be near the Gas Bottles. Ok – I see no gas bottles anywhere, but there was a small fenced in area, like where you would put garbage cans to hide them from view. Yes, I found the gas bottles – great – I also see the Lock Box – inside the fenced area so no way to see it until I had opened the door. I tried the code several times before realizing they must have given me the wrong code. A few minutes later they answered my cry for help, and provided me another 4 digit code. I tried that, but still could not open the lock box. I messaged them again and then went walking around the perimeter to see if I could find another lockbox. Well, I found another fenced in area so I opened that one and there was another lock box in there… this time the first code I had been given worked and I retrieved the keys. Clearly, this building is 2 homes with two independent renters. I climbed the exterior steps up to the front door and made my way inside.
My first thoughts were, It’s cozy in here… like a tiny home cozy. There is a micro kitchen, like you would find in a small RV, adequate for preparing light meals but you are not going to be making Thanksgiving Dinner in here! The apartment is modern, clean, and has a stunning view of the lake.
The other home is a 3 bedroom unit and there was a nice Australian family already in residence. We met after they arrived home to see me in their garage checking out the washer & dryer. After some introductions and a quick chat they went to their palace and I went to my tiny home :-). It’s all good – this place is just right for me!
After unpacking I needed to get a few groceries so I drove the car into town to Woolworths. They are a grocery store here and likely the main rival to Pac & Save. To give you an idea about pricing on groceries, the price tags are similar to in the USA, so $6 for a box of cereal, $4 for milk, but when you factor in the US$ to NZ$ exchange rate, the groceries are discounted by 40% so this is a good destination for us to stretch the $ further. Anything fresh that’s not grown on the island is high-priced, just like in Hawaii.
Time to rest up now for the first bike ride tomorrow. I am going to string a few of the recommended day rides together to build a 40 mile route through the countryside. Until tomorrow then…