We knew after last year’s world cruise that we definitely wanted to see more of New Zealand and Australia, and that we didn’t want to do either by car.
It’s not that we can’t drive, but more that we’d rather concentrate on the scenery than on the rules of the road.
We’d had a taste of New Zealand’s North Island on our 24/25 world cruise, but hadn’t taken the optional overland excursion that allowed some of our fellow passengers to visit the South Island. When we got home, we started to look for ways to do that, and were intrigued by the Pounamu Tourist Group’s offering called the “Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer” Rail & Coach Tour.
Instead of driving ourselves, we’ll get to experience the South Island via train, luxury coach bus, ferry, and steamship, staying in hand-picked hotels, with all but 3 meals over 13 days taken care of for us. Despite some fairly long stretches of bus travel (and, honestly – after some very successful bus tours in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Morocco – those stretches are no big deal) the whole thing sounded wonderful!
In November, we got final confirmation of the hotels in which we’d be staying.
Today started with a leisurely lie-in at our Christchurch hotel, before breakfast at McDonalds (yes, really) next door at Spitfire Square.
Airports are places of connection, and this immediate area includes a couple of tangible references to those connections. Beside our hotel is a replica Spitfire airplane. A plaque explains that it and the adjacent memorial wall commemorate New Zealand flyers killed during the Second World War. During WWII, New Zealand, like Australia and Canada, fought as part of the Commonwealth forces.
Opposite our hotel is a totem pole that we recognized as being Pacific northwestern. It looks very much like poles we’ve seen in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, but this one is actually from Oregon, and commemorates historic cooperation between the US military and the people of Christchurch.
The first part of the plaque’s inscription reads “THIS FRIENDSHIP TOTEM POLE WAS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE OF CHRISTCHURCH BY THE PEOPLE OF OREGON IN APPRECIATION OF THE WARM HOSPITALITY EXTENDED TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE U.S.AIR FORCE AND NAVY DURING OPERATION DEEP FREEZE.” That operation made possible the establishment of the Scott-Amundsen Base at the South Pole.
Both monuments are reminders of times when nations worked together for a common good.
In the afternoon there was pre-registration with our tour group. That involved being issued final itineraries, verifying excursions, being given luggage tags (useful), and baseball caps (turned down because neither of us wears them and there’s no spare luggage room in which to store them), and reusable stainless steel water bottles (great idea), followed by a 20 minute orientation during which we met our tour leaders Trevor and Mike.
When we got back to our room, the hotel’s tech support person came in to activate our bedside Alexa. As an apology for the “inconvenience” he gave us drink vouchers for happy hour in the bar. Bonus! We’ve been very impressed with the customer service at this hotel; if it is indicative of the Sudima chain, we’d certainly stay with them again. We’ll have a second opportunity to experience their service in Kaikoura on Day 11 of our tour.
Having enjoyed our pre-dinner drinks, a New Zealand pilsner and a generous pour of sauvignon blanc, it was time to walk to the plaza for dinner. We chose the Mexicali Cantina this time.
Tomorrow morning our luggage needs to be in the lobby by 6:30 a.m., and we leave at 7:00 a.m. for the train station, so we picked up a couple of quick breakfast items rather than take advantage of the $38NZD/PP hotel breakfast buffet.
We’re ready to experience the South Island of Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand)!
Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure 