Hamilton & Christchurch

Hamilton July 2-4

Hello everyone! We hope you are keeping well. After 10 incredible days in Auckland we took a Inter-City bus to Hamilton. The buses are really nice coaches with great prices. We went to visit my Dad’s first cousin Vaughn, his wife Maxine and 15 year old daughter Nicole. Hamilton is 1.5hrs from Auckland. On the way there was a pretty nasty accident on the high that the bus scheduled to leave 15minutes before us was involved in. Thankfully no one on the bus was injured, the 2 other cars I’m not sure about. 

Vaughn lives on a large dairy farm outside of Hamilton and we got to take a tour of it on Tuesday July 3. We also got to meet “socks” a one day old calf that was adorable. After us city folk got a tour of the farm; Vaughn and Nicole took us around the country side to see parts you wouldn’t get to see on a bus tour. The country side is beautiful. We also went to Matamata to take a look at the “Hobbitville” tour for when we travel up north with our camper-van. Needless to say we won’t be going to see the rebuilt Shire for the movie the Hobbit, for anyone who is interested it is $70NZD per person for a tour. We’ll just go see the movie! 

 Maxine, Vaughn, Nichole, Laura, Neal

 Vaughn and Laura feeding the Cows

 Little runt named Sour who followed us through the farm.

A one day old calf named "Socks"

We had a very brief stay in Hamilton because Vaughn very generously offered to let us keep our Melbourne suitcases at their house while we are traveling in the camper van. However, once we are back on the north island we plan to stay for a few more days and get our hands dirty milking cows on the farm! We really appreciated the hospitality, Thank you!!

Christchurch    July 4- July 7

We flew into Christchurch from Auckland with Jet star airlines. We were picked up by Wilderness RV rentals and taken to their office. After a brief orientation with a guy that sounded like Russell Brand we got out beautiful camper van for the next 50days. The storage room is a little tight but it’s very functional. We picked Wilderness because of their great reviews and the fact that they run their heating system off a diesel heater so we can run a heater all night and not drain the battery! See the pictures below. We then took our camper that we have yet to name over to another cousin’s house. Tony is Vaughn’s brother (also my Dad’s first cousin). There we were very welcomed by Tony, his wife Helen and their adorable 3 ½ year old fraternal twin boys Thomas and Locklyn (Tommy & Locky). They were the cutest, most affectionate and very energetic boys! We had a great time visiting with them and stayed in their guest cottage for the first two nights. 

 Tommy and Locky

 A foggy morning.

 Casa de Shannon for the next 50 days!

 This is the kitchen, living room, bedroom, and dining room.

The Cottage at Tony and Helen's.

On Thursday Tony took Neal and I to downtown Christchurch. Hearing his story recalling both earthquakes was terrifying enough but to actually see the devastation that Christchurch has experienced was more than any photos on the news could portray. For all you Calgarians imagine Stephen Ave with no more high rises, just rubble and building having to be taken down.  It looked like a war zone that had been bombed. Tony told us about all the cafes and the amazing restaurants that collapsed into the rivers with the quakes. Impressively enough Christchurch is in the process of rebuilding, No more high-rises maybe 5 stories maximum. There was a shipping container mall that was really interesting, they used shipping containers and painted them, put in windows and created a street mall of shops and cafes that are now becoming more popular. Food Trucks have also became more popular here to replace the favourite restaurants that were closed because of the earthquakes. 

 The Container Mall

 A small look at what needs to be reconstructed in Christchurch.

Friday was a day of laundry and errands to get our campervan all set to go. The weather has been very damp, rainy and cold for the last few days but Saturday is finally clearing up and a great time to drive over the mountains to the west coast. So we will be heading out in the morning. While we were out shopping there was an earthquake (4.8 on the Richter scale) it was only a few Km from Tony’s house and Helen said it felt pretty strong. We must have been driving at the time because we didn’t notice it. That night we made a delicious spaghetti dinner for Tony and Helen. The twins are great and so helpful but they have unlimited energy and it can be exhausting at times. Tony and Helen do a great job with them, but I got to see firsthand just how much work twins are. We had a wonderful time getting to stay with them and really appreciated their hospitality!

Tony owns “Overland 4WD Rentals” he has some great 4WD vehicles that he rents out for fishing, hunting and camping trips. If you are ever coming to Christchurch and want to head up into the mountains for a while, make sure you give him a call. He drops them off for you at the airport. He sat down with us to create our South Island itinerary, gave us some amazing pointers for hikes, places to stay, and roads to take or avoid since it is winter here. 

Thanks for reading everyone!

Take care,