New Zealand – One Last Road Trip

So we arrived in New Zealand… our long awaited destination. But what to do now? We were heading to meet a friend in Wellington at the South end of North Island but the temptation to cycle the distance from Aukland quickly dissipated as we realised that it’s winter now in NZ (we haven’t seen a winter in well over a year!) and all of our kit that once was waterproof is now looking decidedly dubious. Alice’s long suffering back also didn’t fancy the prospect of such a hilly route across North Island so we would give ‘Telia’ the Tandem a well-earned break.

However, in deciding that it was the end of us riding our bike as our main mode of transport, a problem presented itself… how do we now get ourselves, Telia and all our kit down south? The answer: ‘Tempi’ the Super Camper Van – a relocation deal that we found between Aukland and Christchurch. The deal was that we got the van for free as long as we delivered it in one piece seven days later in Christchurch.

In getting to Christchurch we would overshoot our destination of Wellington by about half of South Island but then who cares when the opportunity for one last road trip (this time on four wheels) was upon us and at the end of it all loomed the end of a (by now slightly drawn-out) honeymoon…

This is country number 22.