Kia Ora - Kaikoura Part I

We were greeted by many signs with "Kia Ora"when we landed in Christchurch. (Kia Ora is a Maori greeting which according to Wikipedia, informally means "hi" although it literally translates to "be well/healthy".) Never mind that it was gloomy or rainy, we were on holiday and determined to enjoy our 2 weeks away from work.

We picked up our car, a humble Nissan Sunny from Apex Rentals near the airport. The husband pre-booked our car from Apex because it was the cheapest out of the rental companies and we could borrow and return the car at different towns. After checking the car and doing the necessary paperwork, we made our way north and kept our fingers crossed for some sunshine for the rest of our days in NZ.

Our first stop in our NZ South Island road trip was Kaikoura, a seaside town about 180km from Christchurch.

Although it was only supposed to be a 2 hours journey, it felt like the longest drive of our lives. We hadn't slept well on the red-eye flight and the cold, wet weather was making us both extremely sleepy. We struggled to stay awake and had to roll the windows down a few times to let the cold draft whenever our eyelids got too heavy. On hindsight, we should have rested one night in Christchurch before starting the road trip.

After what seemed like eternity, we reached Panaroma Motel, a motel which I had picked thanks to Tripadvisor. A pity it was still rainy and gloomy, or we would have gotten a spectacular view of the beach, with the Kaikoura Ranges in the background.

The view from our motel room

It would have been beautiful, if it were sunny