The Southern End of South Island

From Fiordland we drove to Invercargill, capital of the state of Southland, to purchase an international calling plan for our cellphone. We bought a 2degrees sim card when we arrived in New Zealand and the only 2degrees store on the south end of the South Island was in Invercargill. We found the store, bought an international plan with 300 minutes and headed to Oreti Beach Holiday Park 10 km (6 mi) west of the city. 

Oreti Beach Holiday Park

N Zed – The Beginning

Our plan was to spend five weeks circumnavigating the South Island of New Zealand in a campervan (known as a caravan in Australia and New Zealand). We’ve always gone camping, backpacking in our younger days and, more recently, out of the back of a four-wheel drive pickup on federal lands around the western U.S. New Zealand would be our first long trip in an RV as a test, not of our marriage, but of whether we’d like to own one ourselves. We arrived in Christchurch at midnight. Immigration was automated: scan your passport, answer a couple of questions, drop your incoming visitor card in a box welcome to New Zealand. Customs officers asked us questions about food and x-rayed our bags. A female officer asked if her beagle could sniff us and our luggage for fresh fruit; the dog tried to climb into Rande’s purse. She had an empty plastic bag that had carried apples and bananas, which we had eaten before we arrived. Outside the terminal, we caught the shuttle to the Sudima, a large, upscale hotel near the airport and fell into bed.

Mercedes caravan hooked up to electricity in a caravan park