First impressions of New Zealand
From Victoria, BC, Canada, our travel day consisted of 3 flights. Air New Zealand operates a non stop route from Vancouver to Auckland, a 13h55m flight. We had a quick Air Canada flight from Victoria to Vancouver (12 minutes!) and then an afternoon layover in Vancouver. We had a late lunch, charged up our devices, and got changed into our sleeping outfits for the long flight.
Looking out at the Gulf Islands near Vancouver Island, Canada.
The Air New Zealand airplane itself was a massive sized Dreamliner. We paid a bit extra for our tickets to have a SkyCouch, which meant we got a row of three seats all to ourselves. The TV screens welcomed us with “Kia Ora, Krysta” and the lighting was a beautiful lavender haze. The crew fed us dinner and they got our special meal requests accurate. We have had such difficulty with this on previous Air Canada flights when they often only had one vegan meal for the two of us. We were so happy Air NZ were so well organized!
After dinner and wine the crew dimmed the lights so that us passengers could get some sleep. We hit some serious turbulence and it felt like an intense experience trying to set up the SkyCouch while bouncing around. They provided us with a mattress cover, two full sized pillows, and special seat belt straps for when we were laying down. We could fit side by side spooning with our legs bent. I felt so excited to be lying flat in an airplane for the first time that it took me a while to fall asleep!
I actually got a decent sleep, waking up only because my mouth felt so dry from the cabin air. Unfortunately, the set up was a bit too cramped for Brian and he moved to the end seat to sit up and sleep. For reference I’m 5’8” and he’s 6’0”. Overall it was a really cool option! My favourite part was being able to sit up in the couch, lean against the wall of the airplane on my full sized pillow and have my feet outstretched. Nice lounging position!!
We landed in Auckland in the morning and had a couple hours at the airport. Since we were arriving internationally, but connecting to a domestic flight we had to go through customs. We had done our research on the immigration New Zealand website and spoken with friends about their recent experience. New Zealand is strict with anything animal, dirt, and plant related. This is to protect the natural environment. We had to declare our hiking and camping gear, the ~20 dehydrated meals we had, and prescription medication.
The customs officers were very thorough and at the same time really pleasant to work with. Brian had cleaned all our camping equipment we had used outside to ensure there was no dirt remaining on it. When he showed his shoes to the officer, they exclaimed that they looked brand new! Initially they didn’t ask to see our meals, but I pulled them out while looking for something else in my pack. The officer asked to have a closer look once they saw them. We explained they were fully dehydrated and plant based. They told us “that is fine”. Which meant we will be able to use our own meals for about 20 evenings, which will be really nice.
We passed the inspection and the customs officer thanked us for making it so easy for them.
We were now officially in New Zealand!! We had to make our way to the domestic side of the airport and there was an option to walk following a line on the ground. We loved that we got to be outside for this! They had lots of pictures of their nature to look at as we walked.
Our bags still had airline tags on them indicating they would be checked all the way through to Christchurch, so we went to the special assistance counter to figure out what we should do with them. They helped us know exactly what we needed to do. Brian asked for pre-boarding due to his anxiety and they were incredibly accommodating. They inputted our request into their system, stapled our boarding passes together, and wrote a note for their coworkers on it.
We waited at the gate and before they even announced boarding, they called Brian up and the staff were amazingly accommodating helping us to our seats and then asking how we were doing as the flight progressed. We were so impressed! They didn’t make a big deal of it, but they efficiently and effectively accommodated us and made us feel so safe and comfortable. Wow. This really helped us!
Our final flight was Auckland to Christchurch. It was really smooth. We landed, got our luggage, and changed into our hiking clothes, before booking an Uber which arrived 5 mins later. We got to our hotel downtown and they allowed us to leave our bags prior to check in.
Our first view of the mountains of Aotearoa New Zealand
We had two main goals before check in: food and purchasing an electrical USB-C wall adapter for charging our devices.
The food options here in NZ seem endless. Every menu we have looked at so far has labels for all their food, DF, V, and VG labels. We are most strict about eating dairy free, since both of us are allergic to dairy. We usually eat vegan, although I have occasionally been eating some eggs and seafood when there aren’t fully vegan options. Well, there were TONS of vegan options in Christchurch. We had an incredible lunch and then wandered around to multiple electronics stores. We discovered after some strike outs that THE place to go is PB Tech. They had tons of quality options for us!
We also made a visit to the DJI store and were so tempted to buy the DJI Neo drone. It is so much lighter than the DJI mini 2 I brought here with me. It’s especially nice that you can fly it without the heavy controller. AND it does automatic tracking of the subject!! I have to admit, I really wanted it, but I decided to wait and see how things go with the other drone. I had just acquired so much new gear for this hike that I really couldn’t justify buying something else.
With our errands done we checked in, showered, and relaxed. Then out for dinner! I was again extremely impressed with how naturally people seem able to make accommodations here. I arrived at the restaurant for dinner and when the server asked where I would like to sit, I asked for a quiet spot since I was overstimulated by the noise of the city, they seamlessly sat me at the table they thought would be best.
Celebrating our arrival to New Zealand at the Pink Lady rooftop bar.
The next day we took the bus from Christchurch to Invercargill. Our main goal for this bus ride was sight seeing. It was successful!! The Intercity bus company was well organized and we had a coastal view the whole time. My favourite part was, of course, the hundreds of sheep we saw grazing in the fields.
We checked in at the Tuatara Lodge in Invercargill and they had our TA hikers packages waiting for us. It was very exciting!!! They came with our backpack tags, a patch, and stickers!
The next day we rented a car and drove out to Curio Bay to try to see the penguins. Rental cars are more expensive here than in Canada. It was $350 for the day. We saw a few penguins diving and bobbing in the waves. It was super stunning and super windy there!
The beautiful and rugged coastline of Curio Bay.
Later that day we got picked up by the Catch-a-Bus service, which ended up being a private charter! It was a pleasant 30 minute drive from Invercargill to Bluff.
We quickly learned that this southern tip of New Zealand is a very windy place. Our first night in our new Durston X-Mid Pro 2 was flappy and I got very little sleep. Brian noted that he wanted to look up how to create a tighter tent pitch for stormy conditions. The next morning was our first day on trail. I’ll be sharing that story in the next blog post. Thanks for reading!
Love,
Story
