Day 2 - Christchurch to Motueka

Look out New Zealand there is another idiot on the road!

Arrived in Christchurch in the morning to pick up our camper van.  It is HUGE and drives like a bus.

    Christchurch had a major earthquake on September 4th and they had an aftershock on Boxing Day that was 4.9 on the richtor scale. The aftershock damaged many buildings downtown and rubble still covered some of the streets, so they moved the camper van's pickup depot to slightly outside of the central business district.  And that's a good thing.  It was scary enough driving on the left side of the road as it is - I did not want to start driving downtown.  

    My intention was to drive to Abel Tasman national park but driving in New Zealand is slow & scary.  I decided to stop in Motueka to find a place to camp for the night, but all campgrounds were completely booked up.  I talked to a guy who directed me to the next town.

    It was seemingly a good plan to get out of town, except there was a roundabout on the way out of town.  Of course I took the wrong turn in the roundabout and ended up in a hippie camp.  It was a collection of about 10-15 camper vans, much like mine, all parked on the beach 'freedom camping'.

    Camping for free.  Score!  So I found a place to stay afterall.