We left Whangarei Falls and headed to our next destination thinking we really wanted to be near-ish to Auckland so we wouldn’t have a huge drive on top of sorting our bags and then the whole airport hassle as we leave for Christchurch. We checked into this nice little campground, again on a really nice beach in Orewa.
View from the camper at sunset + Henry with some shellls from the beach
The campground gave us these coupons off this Thermal Pool Holiday park 6km down the road so we ended up spending the day there. The park was deserted and the thermal pools were different degrees of warm so we bounced around at all the pools. Grant and Peter first went over to check out the 6 waterslides but on the first one Peter sprained or possibly broke his toe so he’s been limping around all day with that. We all had a great time though still all smell faintly of sulfur.
We came home that night and just had BLT’s that might have been one of the best meals we’ve had to date. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that end up being so good.
We got into Christchurch bleary-eyed and very late and headed straight to bed – Thanks to Peter’s Mum (Jennie) and Bryan for picking us up with all the luggage at such a late hour.
The next morning we woke up and found our 5 yr old had turned 6! A very special thanks to Jennie and Bryan, Sarah, David, Arabella & Luca for making Henry’s remote birthday very special. As a special treat Jennie bought us a family pass to the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch where we spent the day. We saw little blue penguins, rode a Haglund, watched a fun 4D movie on the Arctic and did a ton of other fun things. The boys loved it. We got back and Jennie had set up a spread of chocolates and lollipops and we had dinner and a nice chocolate cake she’d made specially for Henry’s birthday. By the end of the day, Grant was asking if sometime he could have his birthday in another country.
The rest of the week has been spent catching up with family and seeing things around Christchurch. Bryan has taken us around and showed us the state of Christchurch after the earthquake and some of the rebuilding things they’re doing. There’s a section of the city that has been built all with containers and it’s actually really modern and cool. That evening after we went to bed Christchurch decided to give us a little shake with a 4.7 earthquake. It only lasted a few seconds but I wouldn’t want to be around for larger and longer ones.
One night we had fish and chips at Sarah and David’s while the kids ran tirelessly around the backyard with their cousins Luca (13) and Arabella (11). And another night we were invited to Bryan’s for a BBQ while the kids ran around again in the backyard and fed the ducks in the stream behind his house. While at Bryans a minor 3.7 quake also hit! Three years on and the shocks keep on hitting…
We also took a day down to Hanmer Springs which is another thermal springs place about a 90 minutes drive out of Christchurch. The boys had a great time swimming for the rest of the day and Grant enjoyed the water slides. Henry was just too short to be able to go on them, which is a shame as he’d have loved them. But again, shallow water and more practice swimming was good along with a lazy river the boys really enjoyed. All with really nice warm water.
We’ve had sort of iffy weather that’s put a damper on some of our plans. At one point we were going to make a 3 hour drive south to watch some penguins but the weather looked like it was going to be pretty rainy so we decided to stay closer to home and headed out to the Orana Wildlife Park. They have a great set up with a schedule for feeding the animals and walkabout guides that take you pretty much from feeding to feeding giving you info along the way. The boys fed giraffes, and sheep, kuni kuni pigs, rabbits, and we watched rhinos, lions, monkeys and all sorts being fed. They also had a Kiwi house and we got to see them come out and eat. I managed to be the only one that got a really bad sunburn that is still bothering me 3 days later.
Wednesday we headed to the Christchurch Gondola that had just re-opened from the big quakes three year ago. Great views from the top. You could also see many of the boulders that rolled down the hills during the quakes – a number of people were killed by boulders rolling down Christchurch hills from the quakes.
Today we headed down to a farm show at Lincoln University and watched a ton of cows getting milked and learned about dairy production. The boys got free yogurt and cheese samples and a free ice cream so they thought it was awesome. J
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