The upcoming day would be purely an admin day. We would loop back to Christchurch in December and then, we would do our real sightseeing.
Day 2
I wouldn't say we got much sleep on the plane. Likely one or two hours tops.
Christchurch Airport (CHC)
With that in mind, SQ297 arrived in Christchurch Airport (CHC), New Zealand at 10.40AM on 11 Nov. Disembarking was straightforward but the babies were hungry so they took some snacks before processing our passports.
Thankfully, there's a priority lane for children and handicapped so we were whisked to the start of the queue. It helps massively especially when in the event where the babies cook up a tantrum and we would have to manage our luggage, passports and pacify them. Anyway, this dreadful scenario did not occur and we were allowed through the customs. We found our luggage on the belt and dumped them on a nearby cart. Now, New Zealand is very iffy about food and we made a very conscious effort to ensure we did not bring something that would be taken away by checking with their customs over email before we left Singapore. Milk powder was a classic example. We just needed to declare the necessary on a slip of paper and we then, we were allowed through.
All in all, we were happy to finally get through.
And now, we could start to settle the admin of settling in for the next two months. We knew that the first day would be an admin day and it really turned out to be one.
One good thing is we had already mapped out where to go in CHC back in Singapore.
Buying a SIM Card
First, we headed to Spark, one of the telco providers. We got ourselves a NZD 49 Travel SIM card with 200 minutes talktime and more importantly, 3GB of data. This was to last 60 days, one day short of the entire duration of our trip.
Getting Our Rental Car
Second, we used a freephone to call Apex Car Rental, the car rental company that we'd decided to go with. I hadn't confirmed an online booking as in the days prior, I had still been deciding whether to buy or rent a car. To save the hassle of haggling, we decided to rent. They have a shuttle just outside that led us to their airport office. Once there, we admittedly spent an overly long period of close to 45 minutes locking down out details and making the payment. Much of it was spent on booking the Interislander Ferry which was to take us across from Picton to Wellington. On hindsight, I really should have made the online booking as it would have saved quite a bit of time.
Whichever the case, we finally got our car. It was a 2010 Toyota Camry GL, a spacious car with a generous boot space. Another reason for selecting the Camry was that I figured its 2.4L engine should be powerful enough to do overtaking should the need arise. While it's not the best in fuel efficiency but strikes a decent balance with engine power.
So we threw the luggage in the boot, fixed on the child seat in and got everyone in the car. I set up Google Maps in the direction of Adorian Motel in Christchurch. The car mount was somewhere in the luggage so that was to be taken out later.
Adorian Motel (Accommodation)
It took a half hour to reach Adorian Motel (I'll talk more about our experience in different accommodations in dedicated posts). We were quite zonked out so we washed up and basically conked out until evening.
Countdown (Supermarket)
So we come to the third part of the admin - groceries. Yes, groceries are an essential part of the trip, especially with two babies in tow so it was essential to stock up with the necessary before leaving for Arthur's Pass the following day as there is basically no supermart over there.
We headed for Pak'nSave Moorhouse but decided that we needed to grab a bite first. We spotted a Burger King so decided to stop for a bit. The kids wanted some fries and burgers so we obliged. And there was a Countdown just next door. With that, we decided to skip Pak'nSave and check out what Countdown had to offer. At 7:40PM, the supermarket was pretty empty but we did make it a point to get all the essentials like vegetables, cereal and (yes) alcohol. Wine is incredibly inexpensive in New Zealand and understandably so, given that they have a ton of vineyards sprouting all over the South and North Islands.
Upon stocking up, we headed back to our motel. There was absolutely zero sightseeing. Yup, I did say this was an admin day.
Day 2
I wouldn't say we got much sleep on the plane. Likely one or two hours tops.
Christchurch Airport (CHC)
With that in mind, SQ297 arrived in Christchurch Airport (CHC), New Zealand at 10.40AM on 11 Nov. Disembarking was straightforward but the babies were hungry so they took some snacks before processing our passports.
Thankfully, there's a priority lane for children and handicapped so we were whisked to the start of the queue. It helps massively especially when in the event where the babies cook up a tantrum and we would have to manage our luggage, passports and pacify them. Anyway, this dreadful scenario did not occur and we were allowed through the customs. We found our luggage on the belt and dumped them on a nearby cart. Now, New Zealand is very iffy about food and we made a very conscious effort to ensure we did not bring something that would be taken away by checking with their customs over email before we left Singapore. Milk powder was a classic example. We just needed to declare the necessary on a slip of paper and we then, we were allowed through.
All in all, we were happy to finally get through.
And now, we could start to settle the admin of settling in for the next two months. We knew that the first day would be an admin day and it really turned out to be one.
One good thing is we had already mapped out where to go in CHC back in Singapore.
Buying a SIM Card
First, we headed to Spark, one of the telco providers. We got ourselves a NZD 49 Travel SIM card with 200 minutes talktime and more importantly, 3GB of data. This was to last 60 days, one day short of the entire duration of our trip.
Getting Our Rental Car
Second, we used a freephone to call Apex Car Rental, the car rental company that we'd decided to go with. I hadn't confirmed an online booking as in the days prior, I had still been deciding whether to buy or rent a car. To save the hassle of haggling, we decided to rent. They have a shuttle just outside that led us to their airport office. Once there, we admittedly spent an overly long period of close to 45 minutes locking down out details and making the payment. Much of it was spent on booking the Interislander Ferry which was to take us across from Picton to Wellington. On hindsight, I really should have made the online booking as it would have saved quite a bit of time.
Whichever the case, we finally got our car. It was a 2010 Toyota Camry GL, a spacious car with a generous boot space. Another reason for selecting the Camry was that I figured its 2.4L engine should be powerful enough to do overtaking should the need arise. While it's not the best in fuel efficiency but strikes a decent balance with engine power.
 |
| Our Toyota Camry GL |
So we threw the luggage in the boot, fixed on the child seat in and got everyone in the car. I set up Google Maps in the direction of Adorian Motel in Christchurch. The car mount was somewhere in the luggage so that was to be taken out later.
Adorian Motel (Accommodation)
It took a half hour to reach Adorian Motel (I'll talk more about our experience in different accommodations in dedicated posts). We were quite zonked out so we washed up and basically conked out until evening.
Countdown (Supermarket)
So we come to the third part of the admin - groceries. Yes, groceries are an essential part of the trip, especially with two babies in tow so it was essential to stock up with the necessary before leaving for Arthur's Pass the following day as there is basically no supermart over there.
 |
| Stocking up at Countdown, Moorhouse |
We headed for Pak'nSave Moorhouse but decided that we needed to grab a bite first. We spotted a Burger King so decided to stop for a bit. The kids wanted some fries and burgers so we obliged. And there was a Countdown just next door. With that, we decided to skip Pak'nSave and check out what Countdown had to offer. At 7:40PM, the supermarket was pretty empty but we did make it a point to get all the essentials like vegetables, cereal and (yes) alcohol. Wine is incredibly inexpensive in New Zealand and understandably so, given that they have a ton of vineyards sprouting all over the South and North Islands.
Upon stocking up, we headed back to our motel. There was absolutely zero sightseeing. Yup, I did say this was an admin day.
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