We jumped on the plane and had a 2 hour and 45 minutes plane trip to New Zealand 🇳🇿! Let the trip begin!

Christchurch

We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand with the most beautiful weather we could ask for. We went through customs and then we were met by a lovely Maori lady who drove us too FIN0 Appartments. We unpacked and settled in and we were on the 6th storey so we had a good view of Christchurch.

We then wanted to explore the town, so we went for a walk around Christchurch. We found many different sites and many buildings that were abandoned after the Earthquake hit in 2011. There were many empty spots that were now carpark’s where buildings once stood. We visited the Christchurch Cathedral and saw the ruins that the Earthquake had made.

We then went back to the appartment and got some food out and, Karen and Tim arrived for some food and drink and a long chat. We then went out for dinner to a Thai restaurant and we all had a fun and lovely night. We then headed home and went to bed so we could rest before we have another day in Christchurch!

We then went on a tunnel ride to experience the different times in New Zealand’s history timeline: the volcano forming the land; the animals and birds; the Maori people; the first fleet; and the settlement of the fleet. It was quite interesting to see how quickly New Zealand evolved to become what it is today.

After that we had a nice morning tea and took in the amazing view once again from the observation deck. We then went for a long walk but it was all worth it because of the once again, spectacular views of the city and mountains.

The walk back up to the gondola was exhausting. By the time we got back up to the top, we all knew we just wanted to go home. But mum had a different idea. She wanted to go on the city tram. Then she got annoyed because no-one had any other ideas. We went on the tram anyways and had an excellent time learning about all of the land marks, well, the ones that were still there.

When we got home, our room hadn’t been cleaned! 😡 Mum decided to call reception and they said they would do it soon. So we waited, and waited and then decided we should go out for dinner. We went for a drive and looked for somewhere nice to have dinner. At Brighton, we found a pier that we were going to walk on. But, it was too windy so we just decided to have dinner at ‘Salt on the pier”, which was right next to pier. We had a lovely dinner \240and decided to go to the supermarket to get some things for breakfast the next day. The first place we tried was closed but the second time we were lucky. We headed home and decided to watch a movie. Unfortunately the movie did not work on the tv so we just had to watch it on the iPad.

We all went to bed after that and hoped tomorrow would be just as good and exciting as today.

After lunch we then went to see some of the neighbors horses 🐎. Sammy wanted to see the horses all day, so was very excited when Karen said “Do you want to see the horses?”. We then went to see the horses from two different houses.

We then went to another house and we saw some more horses and a “Sausage Horse”.

After seeing the horses we headed home, for a lite dinner with crackers and dips and then chilled for the rest of the night.

After the blizzard room we went for a ride on a Hägglund, which is a vehicle they drive around in Antarctica. We went over different obstacles such as logs, rocks, water, tyres and we went over hills and at the end we went over a huge hill. We went slow at the beginning going up the hill and then we zoomed down when we went down. That was probably the best part of the Centre. We all had a great time.

We also went to a 4D cinema where we watched Happy Feet. Every time in the movie something fell and hit the ground our chairs would move. And when one of the penguins 🐧 jumped into the water we were sprayed with water 💦. That was lots of fun.

We then left and we bought some souvenirs. Sammy bought a Snow Globe with a Kiwi inside. And Josh bought two little Penguins 🐧 and a Hägglund.

We then headed home via the shops where we bought a couple of things. And then Mum and Dad, Karen and Tim went out for dinner 🍴 while Josh and Sammy stayed home and watched a movie 🍿.

We then set out again for 1 hour to a little town on the waters edge called Moeraki. We had lunch at a little restaurant called “Fleur’s Place” which had a great view of the beautiful turquoise water and the Pacific Ocean. The fish 🐟 that the chefs cooked were locally caught and then cooked for us to eat. All our fish was cooked to perfection and we all enjoyed it lots.

We then drove for 1 hour to Dunedin and were amazed by the views that this city provided.

We went to our apartment called “QUEST Apartments” and we unpacked and settled in. Mum said we should go for a walk and explore the town. We found a shopping centre, cafés and many restaurants. We then returned to our apartment and got ready for mass.

We headed to a beautiful old church ⛪ and there were many Maori people at the church. During the mass all the music was in Maori and reminded us all of Fiji. After mass we then headed home and had a light dinner. We then went to bed, because we have a big day tomorrow doing lots of touring.

At the Albatross Centre, we watched a video and then went for a walk up a steep mountain to an observation deck so we could see all the Albatross sitting on their nest and flying around the rocks and edge of the island. We had binoculars so we could could see the albatross clearly. We then went back down to the main building and had some lunch.

We then got back on the bus and headed towards the Penguin Hospital and Learning Centre.

At the Penguin Centre, we first visited the penguin hospital that takes in injured, starving, or orphaned penguins. We then got on a bus and went on a ride to a beach to try and see some penguins in their own habitat. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any penguins for a long time, but we did see lots of seals and even a sea lion.

We still hadn’t seen a penguin so we were quite disappointed but while we were walking back to the bus our bus driver and tour guide shouted: “Oh my gosh, there’s a penguin!!!” A penguin was casually walking past a sea lion (one of their predators) and heading into the ocean for a swim and probably some dinner. We were all so excited it even more excited when it started porpoising (jumping in and out of the water)!!! We watched it as it swam really fast out to sea. When it was out of view, we started walking again but our tour guide shouted again that there was another penguin but this time coming in. We watched it for a while as it came in, stopped, dried itself. When we got back to our bus we were all still amazed. We then headed to the ‘Monarch Cruise’.

On the cruise, we once again saw albatross’, penguins and seals. Apart from the freezing weather, there was so much to see and learn about. There were lots of people at first but once we reached our first stop, nearly everyone got off so we pretty much had the boat to ourselves. It was only after everyone got off that the captain announced there was complimentary refreshments and wifi. The crew member also came around with meat pies and sausage rolls. It started to rain so the captain headed straight for the harbour. About one hundred metres from where we were supposed to stop, there was a couple of blue penguins just floating on top of the water!!! 😱 We were so suprised and just waited while people took photos and just watched them in aww. 😮 We then headed home on the tour bus but then decided to go out for dinner instead.

After dinner, we headed home and just crashed after watching a bit of tv hoping that we wouldn’t be too tired from the most exciting day that we had just had.

We had a couple of stops on the way but we eventually made it to Te Anau. The drive took us about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

We checked in at “Lake View Kiwi Holiday Park” and made our way to Room 50. We walked in and it was the smallest room we had ever stayed in. There were two double beds 🛏 and it would be impossible for two people to sleep in one. The kitchen was tiny and the bedrooms were also small. But the important thing was the everything was clean.

We then went for a walk towards the town, the town was about a kilometre away from where we were staying. We walked along the waters edge towards the town.

Once we made it into the town we did some souvenir shopping. Josh bought a flat cap, a T-shirt and Sammy bought some key rings and a pen. We the bought a ice-cream and ate it near the water. Josh put his fingers in the water and the temperature was freezing. We then headed back to our home.

Mum and dad decided to go out for dinner 🍴 and Josh and Sammy stayed home and had baked beans on toast. Josh and Sammy the watched “Happy Feet” and once the movie finished Sammy went to bed and Josh watched TV 📺 until mum and dad got home 🏠. \240

Once mum and dad got home mum suggested that Josh sleeps on the floor using the lounge cushions. Josh thought it was a great idea and did so. Then everyone went to bed.

Everyone was sleeping happily until someone turned on the chainsaw. (That was Dad) we didn’t really sleep well after that. But we all eventually fell asleep and that was the end of that. \240

We then looked at the beautiful views before finishing our first cruise and getting on a bus to the top of a very steep mountain. There were beautiful waterfalls and views of the lake at the top of the mountain. We then headed back down the mountain to our second cruise. The one of Doubtful Sound. On the second cruise, we saw more beautiful waterfalls and steep cliffs and mountains. We then had time to go out to the Tasman Sea. On our way we saw a rock that was covered in seals. They all looked like big brown rocks in top of the one big rock.

We then headed back and had extra time so we went for another cruise up what was called the “West Arm. During that strip of the tour, the tour guide said that we were going to have a silent moment where all the engines were going to turn off and we were just going to listen to “The sound of nature”.

We then headed back to the dock, and got another bus back to our first cruise ship. The trip back after that was very quiet because everyone was very tired. When we got back to the first dock, we headed to a restaurant to have dinner. We decided to go to a pizza place and share a few meals. After dinner, we got some gelato. Unfortunately, dad seemed to have the sneezes. He just kept on sneezing!! it was hilarious. People kept glancing over at our table. Eventually he stopped, luckily. We then headed home and went to bed. We all had tried to get a good sleep for the big day of traveling tomorrow.

After the show we went for an exploration around the Wildlife Park and saw many native birds and learnt about different Maori things. Whilst we saw all these animals there was an audio tour that made it easy to learn about all the animals.

One of the animals we learnt about was the Tuatara. This animal is a reptile in the 4th category and is alone in that category. We learnt that this animals has third eye but is covered by skin on the top of its head.

It survived the Dinosaur age and the ice age, so these animals have been around for a long time. They can also live to around 200-300 years. We found this animal very interesting.

After we saw all the animals we had made it to the end of the tour. We went to the souvenir shop and Josh and Sammy bought some souvenirs.

After we went to the Wildlife Park we went to the Gondola. The line was long but it was moving quite quickly. We paid then we went up the Gondola. The ride up was very steep and exciting we made it to the top and went to the Viewing Deck. The view was amazing and we took many photos.

We walked around the Viewing Deck then we went down to the Buffet Lunch. We were amazed by how much food there was and we had a great view of Queenstown. The food was multicultural, so there was Asian food, Italian food, Mexican food, etc. The dessert part of the Buffet was amazing there was so many different desserts it was the greatest dessert ever. By then end of lunch we were all so full.

After we had lunch we went back down the Gondola and then drove home. We chilled at home for a little while then we decided to hire some bikes 🚲.

We went for a bike ride around the lake towards the Golf Course 🏌️‍♂️. The path was mainly gravel and mum was not so confident. Towards the beginning of the ride mum stacked it. Josh saw it all and thought it was hilarious 🤣. Mum just stopped and then placed her foot down but she was next to a hill, so she slipped down the hill and did a little roll, it was very funny.

We rode almost all the way to the Golf Course except we decided it was too far we then ate some lollies so that we had energy for the ride back 👌.

We rode home and mum and dad went out for dinner and Josh and Sammy had dinner at home and watched a movie. Then everyone went to bed 🛏. zzzzzzzz...

We geared up then we each hopped on a quad bike. Dad and Josh both rode a 250cc Quad Bike. The average age to ride a 250cc bike was around 16 so Josh must have been good.

We rode for an hour and a half and dad and I enjoyed it lots.