Going on from Christchurch

My last day in Christchurch was mostly occupied with picking up and being shown around my home for the next 12 days:

It seems that all every Kiwi wants to do is jump in a campervan and head out on to the road, so I thought I better try it. It also has the advantage of not having to unpack and repack every night which is quite wearing.

The disadvantage is that I can't be looking at the scenery as much as I'd like and that wherever I arrive, I've got a vehicle to park. Realistically, though, the bus services in New Zealand wouldn't allow me to see as much of the country as I'd like if I didn't have my own transport.

It's amazingly well equipped – on the picture, looking from left to right is the shower/toilet which doubles as a drying room because there's a heater outlet in there. Behind that is a clothes locker then the microwave with fridge below it. Behind that is a TV/DVD player.

The sofa area converts to a double bed when required, and there's a table that can be set up in the middle of it if I want to.

On the right, there's the cooker and then the sink. There's crockery and cutlery for 4 and every kitchen utensil you could hope for.

Everything except the microwave works anywhere. The microwave only works if the van's plugged into the mains somewhere.

As you can see, it also has tea mugs (essential) and on-board “mains” power which I can use to charge my mobile phone or camera battery or run the computer.

With what was left of the day, I drove down to the Christchurch Gondola:

This takes you to the top of Mount Cavendish from where you can look back down over the City of Christchurch and the Canterbury plain around it, or you can look over the other side of the mountain and down into Lyttelton Harbour. Lyttleton is where the first settlers came ashore. They walked over the dividing headland, now you can drive through it in a road tunnel.

The views from the gondola were quite spectacular. It's hard to do them justice in a picture, but here are some attempts. Firstly, Lyttelton Harbour.

This is looking a little further west – away from the sea, though between the mountains in the middle of the horizon is the Pacific Ocean again – Lyttelton sits at the neck of Banks Peninsula.

The whole Peninsula is volcanic – the results of three different volcanoes erupting. This is part of the crater rim. You can also see the old, pre-tunnel road here:

There was a bit of haze down on the plain, but you can just make out the towers of the Central Business District just to the left of the centre of the picture. You can also see the mountains that ring the Canterbury Plain:

The top station has a short “theme” ride that explains some of the geological history of New Zealand and then a little about the Maori and European settlers. Visitors sit in a sort of sleigh-like thing and it drives through the exhibition. It was quite well done, really, but not that conducive to photography. Life was hard, it seems on the original settlers' boats:

A number of walking trails lead away from the top station – around the rim of the old volcano, or just to better vantage points. Looking back, the gondola support seems to be at a rather crazy angle:

I took a short walk to the so called Banks Bluff Lookout. Joseph Banks was the naturalist who sailed with Captain Cook on his voyages of discovery. He was there when they landed at Botany Bay and he was here when they sailed past what they then thought was Banks Island. From the lookout, you get a great view of the summit road and the inner sound of Lyttelton Harbour:

From the gondola, it was time to venture out on to the Peninsula itself. Because of the geography of the place, getting anywhere takes a long time, even if you're not going that far as the crow flies. I ended up stopping at a little lay-by for the night – the joys of freedom camping being apparent. This is the view the following morning when I opened the door: