A few posts ago, I remarked that we were glad to be back on land after our cruise and making our own travel choices again. I take it back. Making our own travel choices is a lot of hard work, especially here in New Zealand. This is a long post and will sound like a real whinge, but, it's a warning. If you come here, decide what you want to do and book well in advance of your arrival.
It's not that we're procrastinators, really. It's just that we had a lot of unknowns to work with which led us to trying to make travel bookings only a few weeks in advance instead of the months, or even years, in advance, it seems to require here. We thought we wanted to rent a campervan for some, or all, of our time here as it seemed to be the best and most flexible solution. We started getting quotes months ago and due to the high rental cost we'd decided against it and thought it may be better to buy a campervan once we got here (and worry about reselling it at a huge loss before our visas ran out), or maybe buy a regular van and minimally convert it ourselves, or travel by car/tent (either buying, or, renting a car?). How about car/motels/BandB's? How about renting a flat and doing day trips from it? How long did we want to spend in NZ anyway? How long did we want to spend on the North Island? How long on the South Island? Which island should we do first? What if we booked a hugely expensive campervan and ended up finding a suitable sailboat to purchase here in which case we didn't need a van anyway? Too many choices and variables at work!
After much research and analysis of all the various options we decided to shorten our length of stay to just three months, from the planned six, to make it more affordable and to go ahead and book a campervan for that period. We started while we were still on the ship, a month ahead of when we needed the van. We trolled a lot of websites and could no longer find any availability at all! We contacted a broker who scraped the bottom of the barrel and came up with one. We were on the cruise ship with limited internet and missed it because we didn't respond fast enough. There was now not a single campervan to be rented, starting from Auckland where we got off the ship. If we picked up in Christchurch (South Island) there was availability, if we could do two different vans, with two different companies, with a ten day gap between rentals. It would mean the cost of an extra ferry crossing, but, we grabbed them both and started making plans to get ourselves to the South Island for van pickup.
First, from the cruise ship, we took a taxi to our first night at an airport hotel. The taxi driver ripped us off with a $97 fare which should have been a $60 flat rate as we found out later. Unfortunately, we'd only booked one night at this hotel and it was fully booked for the immediate future so we had to move.
Next, we tried booking another hotel in Auckland for a few more days. There were no reasonably priced, reasonable quality, hotels left. Even all the backpacker hostels were booked up. Against our better judgement, we booked three nights at a place in the boonies, for a not inconsequential $140 night. I won't even describe the place. Once we got past the smell of cheap air freshener and dirty socks and having to flick a cockroach off the bed, we got in bed, shut our eyes and tried to imagine we were somewhere else very far away.
Despite the unfortunate Auckland stay, we were looking forward to the change of van pickup plans which meant going to Christchurch to pick up the van. We'd researched and booked the scenic Kiwi Rail train trip and ferry combination. We'd paid a premium for this as it was a 'last-minute' fare. We'd booked hotels for both ends of the trip. It was all looking good and the future seemed bright. We were due to depart on the train early Thursday morning. Overnight Monday, the earthquake happened in Kaikoura and as I'm sure you saw on the news, the train track from Picton to Christchurch was devastated and there was no way trains would be running along there anytime soon. Our rental van company contacted us from their base in Nelson and said they wouldn't be able to deliver the van to Christchurch as the roads were closed. Could we come to Nelson instead? So, we quickly cancelled the two trains, two hotels and one ferry and booked ourselves on a flight to Nelson instead. We only lost about $75 on the currency exchange differences. The trip to Nelson went ok except for the surly parking security staff at the Nelson airport.
We picked up the van and turned right around to make the trip back to North Island as we'd decided to tour that island first. Arriving at the ferry office in Picton, we were surprised to find the cashiers sitting in an outbuilding on the pavement. The office building and the ferry dock were both damaged in the earthquake. Usually, there are so many ferries we were told that you can just drive up and get on. Not so today. We were informed the earliest we could get a ticket was a week hence due to damages and schedule changes in both Wellington and Picton. We could buy a ticket and go on standby arriving each day to wait in the queue. We decided to do this and by some miracle, we got on the first sailing. It was a very rough crossing across Cook Strait with sick bags, ice chips and ginger drinks being handed out by staff, but, it was only a few hours and we got through unscathed. At least we weren't marooned out there like the ferries that were in transit when the quake happened. They were unable to land anywhere and I guess they just had to hold off until they got word of what to do.
This first van is old and well-used, but ok, a Fiat Ducato, diesel, five-speed. We decided to 'do' four weeks in the North Island first as it's warmer there now followed by six weeks in the South Island. All our travel bookings are now complete to the end of January and after the rather rocky start, we can now just execute and enjoy, hopefully! We have booked a couple of three-day hikes on Great Walks and a three day sea kayak tour in Abel Tasman park near Nelson. We'll be dropping this van off in Nelson just after Christmas and picking up another one in Christchurch ten days later. We have rented a car for the gap and will do some tenting during that period. It can only get better from now on.
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