NZ 2023 Day 1: Christchurch to Lake Tekapo

 DAY 1: 24 NOV 2023

Lupins near the Church of Good Shepherd

The year-end holidays have begun!

This time, Zhi Sheng and I travelled to New Zealand's south island.

The airfare for direct flights is really expensive and out of our budget.

Instead, we flew to Sydney with Scoot and then flew to Christchurch with Qantas.

The flights cost us around S$1,500 each, which include 20kg baggage and seat selection.

Prior to flying, we completed the following via the official apps:

NZeTA (lasts for 2 years)

NZ TD (arrival travel declaration)

Australia eTA (lasts for 1 year)

I also downloaded the Gaspy app which provides relatively current petrol prices in NZ. 

This app was really useful as we were able to source for stations with cheaper petrol prices.

In general, NPD self-serve stations were the cheaper ones.

As we were road tripping, it was important to have offline maps downloaded and internet access.

I downloaded the offline Google maps which were useful as the connectivity was poor in areas like Milford Sound.

As for the SIM card, I got the ICC Australia & NZ SIM card which came with 1 GB of data daily, a Hong Kong phone number and call time.

The connectivity was only good in big towns and cities.

At least the call time was useful as we had to contact the hotel and car rental company at the start of our trip. 

Now that I am done with all the logistical parts of our trip, let's begin the travel report!

It was almost an entire day of travelling before we finally arrived in Christchurch at 1am on 24 November.

The hotel shuttle picked us up from the airport and after a short drive, we arrived at our accommodation for the night, Sudima Hotel Christchurch Airport.

It costs S$194 for 1 night's stay and it included 40 NZD food credits.

The room was clean, warm and something we appreciated after travelling long hours.

We got up at 8am for buffet breakfast.

The buffet breakfast includes both deli and hot foods and costs 35 NZD per person.

We utilised our food credits and topped up so that both of us can enjoy the buffet.

Buffet breakfast

The buffet spread was pretty good and we were so stuffed that we skipped lunch.

We were the only Asians at the restaurant and we probably ate more than the other patrons.

It's a buffet after all!

We checked out and managed to request for our car rental company, Apex, to pick us up at the hotel.

The car collection was smooth and we got our car pretty quickly.

Instead of a Toyota Corolla, we got a Hyundai Elantra.

For 12 days of rental, we paid 1,000 NZD with zero excess insurance.

We loved having zero excess insurance as this meant one less thing to worry about while road-tripping.

Our first destination was the supermarket, Countdown, at Rolleston to stock up on our necessities like bottled water, snacks and gummies.

At Countdown, I managed to get 2 avocados for 2 NZD and Pam's brie cheese for 3.50 NZD.

Super cheap!

After shopping, we drove to Rakaia Gorge which was a slight detour from our route to Lake Tekapo.

Rakaia Gorge

The bridges were a short walk from the carpark and they offered a good view of the gorge.

We were greeted by the blue waters with greenery in the background.

We then hiked the Rakaia gorge walkway for about 15 minutes to view the river from higher ground.

View from Rakaia gorge walkway

As the sky was getting overcast, we decided to turn back before the rain came.

Sheeps grazing

After Rakaia gorge, we drove to a small town, Fairlie, to have pies from their famous bakehouse!

When driving in New Zealand, there are many sheeps and cows grazing on fields next to the highways.

We only got to see deers during our drive towards Lake Tekapo.

As the pies were huge, we decided to get one to share.

The bacon and salmon pie was unfortunately sold out when it was my turn to order, so we settled for the ultimate steak pie which was about 9 NZD.

I also got a cup of hot chocolate!

The pies in Australia and New Zealand are awesome.

If you have no idea what to eat, just go for pies. 

The crust of the pie we had was flaky and light while the steak was juicy and coated with delicious mushroom sauce.

This bakehouse is definitely worth a stopover as the drive to Lake Tekapo from Christchurch takes close to 3 hours.

Burkes Pass

After leaving Fairlie, we took a quick stopover at the historic village of Burkes Pass.

For a moment, I felt like I was in a Universal Studios theme park.

The decor mimicked villages in the past.

Mountain views along the way to Lake Tekapo

After a long drive, we arrived at Lake Tekapo!

There were many free off-street parking available near our accommodation, YHA Lake Tekapo.

Before getting excited about lupins, we first checked into our twin room with ensuite bathroom.

Our room costs S$185 for one night.

There wasn't much space to walk around after opening both luggages and the TV in the room was unfortunately not in operation during our stay.

After getting settled, we headed out to the lakefront which was right in front of YHA.

Thank goodness the lupins started blooming a week before and there were many around Lake Tekapo!

The lake views were stunning here.

We had lupins in the foreground and blue lake and mountains in the background.

We probably spent at least 30 minutes taking multiple photos here!

View of Church of Good Shepherd from the bridge

Then we decided to cross the bridge to see the Church of Good Shepherd!

There were many more lupins right in front of the church which made it such a wonderful photo spot.

Having enough photos with the lupins, we decided to head back to the main street for dinner.

The main street where YHA is situated had multiple restaurants and we had a tough time deciding.

We spotted dark sky diner which was on our list of restaurants and browsed through the menu.

As it was close to 8pm and the kitchen closes at 8.30pm, we decided to dine there.

Pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and shaved cheese

BBQ pork ribs served with fries and salad

Both dishes had generous portions and were equally delicious!

The pork ribs costs 38 NZD while the pasta costs about 30 NZD.

We also had a lovely lake view while we dined there.

Stargazing

After dinner, we returned to our room for some rest and showered before heading out to the lakefront once again.

I wanted to photograph the milky way.

To my dismay, my camera settings were not ideal despite all the trial and error.

On top of that, the moon was shining brightly which made it difficult to photograph the stars.

I managed to capture some stars in the end!

These were taken using an iPhone 14.

That's the end of our road trip day 1!

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Click here for our Day 2 adventures!

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