Roam Relax Repeat

April 02, 2020

Sunday March 22

Our day in Kiakoura

Beautiful sunny day, hardly a cloud in the sky. We have really been blessed with good weather on this trip. I had my usual relaxing breakfast and Lydia headed out for a short beach run, which lasted a bit longer than scheduled as she stopped in a little shop on her way back and struck up a conversation with the shop owner. After, showers and a laundry session, we decided to check out the cliff / beach walk at the end of the Kiakoura peninsula – potential to see some whales offshore and view a seal colony on the rocks at the base of the bluffs. We drove to a parking lot at the end of the peninsula, lots of people out enjoying the day, lots of camper vans in the parking lot. The end of the peninsula is squared off and approximately 2 km wide and rises up over 100 feet above the ocean and rocky area at the base of the cliffs. The rocky area is home to a seal colony and is quite flat and walk-able at low tide. We started by climbing up to the top of the bluff where the path follows along the edge and provides multiple viewpoints from the top of the bluffs. We were able to spot the seal colony, hundreds of seals sunning themselves on the warm, flat rocks. We traversed the peninsula on the upper path and then descended to the rocks and made our way back across the base of the cliffs to the car park. Along the way we got a close up look at some seals and enjoyed watching the waves crashing in on the rocks. After our hike, we returned to town did our grocery run and returned to camp for some relaxation.

Monday March 23

Travel day to Picton

It’s a short drive from Kiakoura to Picton and we took our time and enjoyed the ride. We did stop for coffee and a stretch break in Blenheim. For the second day in a row, we had to sign a customer register at the coffee shop, a measure enforced by the government to track customers in case someone contracted covid 19. As it turned out it was to be our last visit to a coffee shop in New Zealand as the country was about to go into lockdown.

We arrived in Picton just after noon, checked into our campsite, did a grocery run and topped up the van with gas. We had some time on our hands, so we did a short hike up a hill behind Picton. When we arrived at the lookout it provided a very nice view of the town, harbour and the surrounding islands that makeup Marlborough Sound. At the lookout there was a bench and a couple of guys were sitting there huddled around a smart phone, listening to the New Zealand prime minister delivering an emergency speech. She was announcing that the country had just been put on alert level three and would be moving to alert level four in forty-eight hours. We didn’t really know what that meant at the time but it sounded serious and we did catch some info such as the ferry service would only provide service to emergency personnel and that the public would no longer have access.

We hiked back down to camp, which was quickly filling up, I’m sure 99 percent of the campers were there waiting to catch the ferry the following day. The campsite had a weird vibe, everyone was kind of on edge, trying to follow the social distancing rules and everyone trying to digest the new emergency measures being imposed across the country.

By the time the sun went down the campsite was packed. There was some partying going on which seemed inappropriate and we could tell that not everyone was on board with the new emergency procedures. It was actually the first night in all our nights of camping that was a little bit rowdy.

Tuesday March 24

Ferry Day

We awoke to the sounds of campers packing up and heading out to catch the early ferry. Today we would catch the Interislander ferry at 2:15 pm, so we had time to kill before we had to rush off. We took our time with our showers and breakfast and were wondering if we could find a nice place to walk before boarding the ferry. We drove down towards the Interislander terminal, I thought it would be prudent to find out what time we should show up at the terminal. We took a side road to the terminal, which was not busy and were surprised when we came upon a traffic control point operated by ferry personnel. I asked when we should present ourselves to line up for boarding for the 2:15 boat and they said “right now”! We were surprised, but happy we had made the decision to ask. There were some further screening checkpoints we went through before landing in the preboarding parking area with all the other vans and cars waiting to go to the North Island. We were reminded to stay in our cars as much as possible and to observe the distancing guidelines. We killed the time waiting to board by gawking at our phones and doing a couple of Facetime calls.

Boarding happened on time and before long we had set sail for the North Island. Little did we know that there had been quite a bit of drama at the ferry terminal that morning with police turning away people who didn’t have tickets. It seems there were lots of people trying to make a last-minute dash to the north island before the lock down measures went into effect at midnight – effectively cutting off ferry service to the public.

The passage across the Cook Strait was uneventful although a little rolling as the seas had a descent swell happening. We arrived in Wellington around 6 pm and immediately headed north up highway one towards the town of Foxton, our destination for the night. We had phoned the campsite in the morning to ensure they would be open and that they would be ok with us arriving a bit late. The drive up highway one was quite scenic and the beautiful sunset helped to take the edge off of what was turning out to be a long day of travelling.

The light in the campsite office was on when we arrived, one other camper van couple was registering. The campsite was on an estuary close to the beach, but we couldn’t see anything except a lot of stars. We pulled into our spot and noticed there were only 3 other camper vans in the campsite, very quiet. We set ourselves up, warmed up some leftovers from our little fridge, which we prepared and enjoyed before calling it a night.

Wednesday March 25

Our last day on the road

Today we got up fairly early, Lydia managed to squeeze in a quick run before we packed up and pointed the van to Auckland. We didn’t want to deviate too much from the highway one, but we did try to avoid retracing any roads that we had previously traveled which worked out well for us. The country side was very agricultural for the most part and pleasant to drive through. The traffic was lighter than usual, I’m sure, now that the highest alert level was in place. We stopped in Hamilton, one of NZ larger cities, to pick up groceries and supplies for the next couple of days. We would be spending our final two nights with our friends Trish and Alex in Auckland, who graciously offered to take us in while we waited for our flight back to Canada on Friday night.

Arrived in Auckland and pulled into the driveway at Trish and Alex’s at 5 pm, after an easy ride through very light Auckland traffic. We breathed a sigh of relief, we made it back to Auckland intact, now we had a couple of days to chill and enjoy our last days in New Zealand even though the whole country was under lockdown orders.

Thursday March 26^th

Woke up refreshed after sleeping in a real bed for the first time in over 7 weeks! Lydia and Trish went for a neighbourhood run, which is allowed under the lockdown rules. I spend some time on the computer organizing pictures and updating the blog. Later in the day Lydia led us in a strength workout on Trish’s back deck – ouch! Haven’t done that in a while.

Enjoyed another fine meal with our friends, watched some tube and brought ourselves up to date on the never-ending flow of covid-19 info.

Friday March 27^th

Our last day in NZ. Nice day – Lydia and Trish did another running sortie along a wooded track around a golf course near their home. I packed up and prepared the van for its return to Mad Campers. We had read on the Air New Zealand site that there would be extra screening at the airport, that we should arrive extra early to allow time for that to happen. I had contacted the van rental company to find out how the drop off was going to work and we set a drop off time of 3 pm.

At 2 pm we said our goodbyes with Trish, Alex had come home for lunch a bit earlier so we had a chance to say goodbye to him too. We climbed into the van for the last time and headed off into the very empty streets of Auckland. We made it to the rental office on the south side of town in no time and were met by a skeleton staff. We unloaded our bags onto the sidewalk and I drove the van around back. They gave me a bag to put all the bedding in, they would just leave it in the van for 72 hours at which time they would come back and clean the van. Most of the vans were back in the yard at this point and the company rep was saying they were trying to adapt and come up with ideas for keeping their business going now that the tourism industry would be on hold for the foreseeable future. They were hoping they might be able to rent out some vans to be used as self isolation units for people that were stranded in New Zealand and not able to return home. We thanked him, wished him luck and then took an Uber to the airport.

The airport was like a ghost town. We breezed through check in, security and really, there was no additional screening like we had expected. Basically, we had a bunch of time to kill in an airport that had virtually no shops open. Luckily we had some food with us and we had Netflix on our phones! As the hours ticked by the gate lounge slowly filled and by boarding time we had a full plane for our flight to Los Angeles. It was a good flight, good service, nice meals and lots of time to snooze and watch movies. We arrived in LA a bit ahead of schedule to another empty airport. We made our way through customs, picked up our bags and put them through the system to get them on our flight to Vancouver and then headed to the lounge area to hangout for 5 hours. There were more services available in LA than Auckland and the time passed quickly. Chatted from a distance with other fellow travellers, a few of them returning Canadians. Everyone anxious to get home, everyone with a story about struggling to make last minute arrangements for flights.

Finally, it was boarding time for our flight to Vancouver, the plane was about a third full. Arrived in Vancouver on time, got a bit of a scare from customs when they told us that domestic flights may be cancelled within the next day or so and that we may have to self isolate in Vancouver! Called La Quinta Inn in Richmond and took a cab to our hotel where we would stay for the next two nights awaiting our journey’s final leg home to Ottawa.

Saturday March 28^th

Rest day at La Quinta Inn

Went down for breakfast, Lydia foraged for extra food from the breakfast buffet to hold us over! Lounged around in our room watching movies and the news. Ordered pizza for supper! Set the alarm for 3:30 am and booked a taxi to pick us up at 4:30.

Sunday March 29^th

Woke up and scarfed down the food Lydia had hidden away in the fridge. Unfortunately, the fridge was really cold and the oranges and apples were frozen solid! Went down to the lobby and waited for our taxi….and waited. The taxi hadn’t arrived and was about 10 minutes overdue, their telephone was going to voice mail, so we hailed an Uber. Our Uber arrived in less than 10 minutes an whisked us off to the airport which was just a short drive away. Vancouver airport was super quiet and we made our way easily through check in and security screening. No real covid 19 screening.

Our flights home were on time and uneventful. We arrived in Ottawa a little ahead of schedule. The only glitch we encountered was at the baggage carousel when Lydia’s baggage failed to materialize. The WestJet rep approached us, apparently, he was aware that her bag was still in Vancouver and promised it would be delivered to our house the next day. As of this writing (four days later) the bag is still out there somewhere. WestJet has conceded that they can’t find the bag, but they are still looking. Lydia is not happy with this – all her favourite clothes were in that bag not to mention the inconvenience of not having her stuff. Looks like there’s going to be a bunch of shopping once we get out of isolation!

Trip Summary

Since arriving home, we’ve been in self isolation and will remain in that mode until fourteen days elapse. We haven’t really spent much time reflecting on our trip as we’ve been pre-occupied with the virus and all the distressing news from around the world. Meanwhile, we’re wrapping up loose ends, like dealing with Lydia’s lost luggage and filing an insurance claim for trip interruption expenses racked up on our way home. During our final days on the road, Lydia mentioned that our trip to New Zealand was really a trip of a lifetime, for a number of reasons. We had loads of fun and great experiences, New Zealand is a wonderful country to visit with fantastic geography and friendly, welcoming people. The last 10 days of our trip were dominated with our efforts to return to Canada, the challenges of pulling that off will remain with us and become part of our story. In reality though, we had it easy. At the time, the final days of our trip were stressful, but it all worked out, we arrived home safely and so far we are both healthy (fingers crossed). We probably won’t celebrate our trip for the next little while, there are more important things to do and think about right now but eventually once this crisis has subsided and life returns to some kind of normal, we’ll look back on the excellent parts of our trip to New Zealand and look forward to our next adventure.

Pictures from Milford Sound