Celebrating Tet in New Zealand

Happy Tet!

Along with the Brenda, Kevin and Adelina, we departed for New Zealand for our Tet holiday. We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday after a long but rather uneventful flight. We had the bulkhead seats and a bassinet for Caleb. Luckily, the Singapore Airlines bassinets are of the large size so Caleb still fit in (tightly). He was terrific though and slept for the entire flight. We arrived in Christchurch at 10:00 am and after a bit of a wait at customs while our tent was checked for any foreign soil, we made it out to call the RV company and catch our pickup. Our Winnabago was waiting for us. While the boys did all the paper work and watched the video, Brenda and I packed up the RV. By around 12:30 pm we were on the road; boys in the front and the girls and two carseats in the back. We made a lunch stop at Subway and then hit the grocery store before heading north to a campsite at Leithfield Beach. We got in about 5:00 pm and had times for a walk along the beach, showers and roast chicken, salads and delicious bread before crashing. The jetlag (NZ is six hours ahead of VN) got to Caleb so we spent a bit of time around 2:00 am reading some books. We were up in the top of the RV, separated by a curtain, so were able to have a headlamp on and not disturb everyone else.

At Leithfield Beach, East Coast of the South Island, New Zealand.

The next day we head north in the direction of Blenheim, stopping in Kaikoura for lunch and a walk along the ocean to the seal colony. We had terrific lunch on the edge of town – fish of the day, green mussels, seafood chowder. The walk along the ocean cliffs from the seal colony was beautiful (although windy) and it was great to see Caleb loving the backpack carrier.

Hiking at the windy Kaikoura peninsula.

Caleb loved the backpack carrier.

At the seal colony in Kaikoura.

We continued driving north eventually found a campsite at Spring Creek, which was conveniently located right in the middle of the Marlbourgh wine district. We spent Sunday touring wineries. First we stopped at Cloudy Bay and then Allen Scott (a favourite Sauvignon Blanc of ours). After a quick lunch, we stopped at Saint Clair on our way back into Blenheim. Apparently, I had a few too many tasters since I left Caleb’s stroller at Saint Clair’s vineyard. The good news was that I remembered to take out Caleb and the bottles of wine that I was carrying in it… the other good news was that it was still there when we went to pick it up!

After the second day in a row of sleeping in to 9:30am (amazing!), we continued north to the town of Nelson. Nelson was a pleasant surprise – a touristy yet laidback town full of cafes and shops. Our day there went by much too fast. We were able to book a day trip into Abel Tasman National Park though so headed to bed after an amazing bbq feast of Aussie steaks, potatoes and corn in preparation to awake early to get out to Kaiteriteri to catch our boat into Abel Tasman.

Waking up earlier (8:30am) was harder than we thought. You knew one hour made such a difference! We were able to get out on the road with time to stop at a McCafe and still park the RV before catching our boat destined for Tonga Gorge. We departed at Tonga and started our 5 km trek through the fern forest. The trail poked out along the way at various coastal spots with picture perfect beaches. The hike reminded us so much of the West Coast Trail and we could imagine a few days of this. Not this time though – our boat picked us up and we were back in time for dinner around 7:00pm (and a few rides on the Kaiteriteri Campsite’s Flying Fox).

It is 9:00 am now and my boys are still sleeping so best I get this posted, jump in the shower and get ready before breakfast time. A long road trip towards the West Coast awaits us today.