The drive started in a rainy Christchurch. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a map in the car and yours truly, who has done the drive from Christchurch to Queenstown in 3 weeks, thought she knew the road by heart. Alex was pretty sceptic about this but we still kept going, until at some point we both realized that it could not be the right way. In Timaru, we asked which way to go and the friendly fuel station manager chuckled a bit and told us we’d driven “a bit out of the way”. We had to drive back to Fairlie and there take the road past Tekapo, Twizel and so on. Whoops, my bad!
The rest of the trip was great. The rain lifted and made way for a clear, bright blue sky. We passed Tekapo, which is where I first realised that I love New Zealand, and the lake was as beautiful as the first time I’d seen it.
The drive then continued through Central Otago, which consists mainly of large tussocked plains with in the background huge impressive mountain ranges. The autumn colours were very vibrant, the sky was littered with slices of cloud and the image was just picture perfect (unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures).
When we passed through the Kawarau Gorge, I knew we were not too far from Queenstown anymore because I recognized the breathtaking type of landscape from a heli-raft trip I did around there: huge gorges with a river swinging down below. It was downright beautiful.
On arrival in Queenstown, we both took a deep breath of air – the temperature there is much colder than in Christchurch, and the air feels purer. Welcome home! We booked into a hotel and immediately had a meeting with a real estate agent for a property viewing.
The next days were filled with the same: property viewing, trying to find something to rent, trying to find a job.
It so happens that finding rentals and a job will not be easy, since the rental market has been flooded by people coming from Christchurch to try and escape the quakes.
We did see a few buying properties that interest us though, and living in Queenstown will be really cool. The city has such a nice vibe – you can’t really find this in Christchurch, and definitely not since the earthquakes have wrecked the city.
Unfortunately, the snow has not yet fallen in Queenstown, and every skier and snowboarder is anxiously waiting for it to happen. The city hasn’t had this problem since years. Hundreds of people don’t have a job at the moment, because normally the ski fields should’ve been opened by now but due to lack of snow aren’t … hopefully the snow will fall soon – do all your snow dances and prayers for us!
Now we are back in Christchurch once more, where – no surprise there – the earth has moved again yesterday. Luckily we didn’t find any extra damage to the house. For now we will just wait, do a bit of work on the station, and then go back to Queenstown – where by then hopefully the snow has fallen – to start the real winter.
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