After a good nights sleep, in fact it was a struggle to get the kids out of bed, it was back to the airport to pick up the Motorhome for our holiday in New Zealand.It took about an hour but we finally got our home for the next 4 weeks. Talk about downsizing. After having the 40 ft RV with all the bells and whistles in the US back in April, this 26 footer seems so small but I am sure we will get used to it.Since we didn’t really have any breakfast, everyone was getting hungry and as luck would have it, the Antarctic Centre was just by the Airport where the pickup spot was located.

Into the cafe for some brunch then spent the rest of the afternoon at the Antarctic Centre. This is an interesting place which is the base for logistics for the New Zealand, US and Italian Operations in the Antarctic. A lot of interactive activities including a ride in a Haggland transporter over a 4WD track that most 4WD’s would fail particularly with the 3m deep water trench where the Haggland actually floats across. There is also a simulated Antartic storm where you donned coats and endured -8C with a wind chill of -50C, some 4D movies and finished off with watching the feeding of the fairy penguins.

It was getting late in the afternoon now, and even with no NZ cash time to go shopping for supplies and SIM cards. Lucky we have plastic.

Time for one more activity before calling it a day. There was a geocaching event GC5G6X5 – Quick Catch-Up & Fish Event in Hagley Park. It provided a good opportunity to chat with some locals and Jenny found some more things to put on here list of things we were doing on this trip. We were not the only international cachers there – three German cachers travelling the world attended as well. We catch up again with them in Adelaide if they make it to SA.

Camping tonight was just north of Christchurch at the Spencer Beach Holiday Park. It was huge with no problems with neighbours as everyone was spread out over 80 acres. I guess this place fills up in the summer holidays.