Day 9 – Bye Snow Caps, Hello Rolling Pastures 

13,217 Steps

Surprise daylight savings coming into effect meant this morning was a mission to wake up. We had 7am alarms (4am back home) to give ourselves plenty of time to get ourselves completely repacked and out to explore Christchurch for a few hours since we fly to the north island today. 

Last night we were able to see a few of the places on our list while we were out to dinner, like the cathedral and the riverside market, so today it was just the Botanical gardens left. 

These were beautiful to walk around and see the many curated gardens representing different areas and styles, but I think my favourite area was inside the Cunningham House greenhouse. Although a few areas were closed to the public for maintenance, what we were able to see was gorgeous. Plus we got to see a few young ducklings along our travels, so a big tick for the Christchurch Botanical Gardens!

After making the most of the fresh air and sunshine, we got in the car and headed towards the Christchurch Jucy branch to say goodbye to our current roadtrip chariot. We grabbed the free shuttle to the airport, checked our luggage and nabbed a couple of reclined chairs and relaxed until it was time to board. 

It was a full, but uneventful flight into Auckland, landing only 1 hour and 1 minute after takeoff. It was a scramble to get our bags and get the last shuttle to the Auckland Jucy branch to pick up our new transport, and then start the journey towards Rotorua! 

Between Auckland and Rotorua, there’s not many scenic viewpoints or points of interest to stop at. We were on the highway for the majority of it, but the green everywhere was lovely to drive through. 

We got settled into our accommodation and headed to the local supermarket to grab some fresh supplies, had a quick bite to eat and headed out to our Redwoods Treewalk night tour. It was an incredible display with many art installations hung throughout a suspension bridge treetop walk. I loved this!