bye bye australia, hello new zealand

Today I left Australia and flew from Melbourne to Christchurch, which is on the southern island of New Zealand. The city is quite busy, I really had problems finding accommodation and also a reasonably priced car. I could not get the car I wanted, so I got a temporary car for 4 days. I drove to my hostel, checked in and wanted to park..... and the car did not start ^#&@^#( I had to do several phonecalls until finally a guy from the road service came and replaced the battery.

Flying over New Zealand was beautiful, the mountains in the east blocked a thick stripe of clouds, over the mountains blue sky and on the western side cloudy again. I could clearly see the snow and the glaciers. The weather is nice, 24 degrees and sunny. I am sure, I will not need aircon to sleep here, it is much cooler here than australia.

I had to get up early for the flight, many thanx to Gian, that he also got up early and dropped me at the airport.

I will stay at least one additional night here, then I have to change the car and will get a sleepervan, which is a minibus with a mattress to sleep. Then I can decide whether to sleep in a hostel or in a car.

Christchurch is a nice city, looks very British. I don´t know the laws here, but some things seem to be different regarding drugs....



Also the christian people are lucky here, they can buy all their stuff in a dedicated shop:



And at night, they can go to a church, which is now used as a party area:





The next day i drove to Akaroa, which is a nice peninsula with a beautiful bay east of Christchurch. The landscape is beautiful and sometimes spectacular.


When I drove back, some fog appeared and made the scenery a little mystical. This is the end of a lake with a small house, which has two small mountains to the left and the right. The fog came down from the mountains.