A throwback to June, it was fasting month (Ramadhan), and winter season. I am not really a fan of travelling during winter nor Ramadhan. But I was daring enough to have it try travelling during those times. I thought, “why not?”

One month later, I packed my bags and ready to enjoy my winter wonderland trip. I planned to explore South Island for a week, from Christchurch to Dunedin. It’s going to be a long trip and I can’t wait to share the beauty of the island.

6^th July.

Landed sound and safely at Christchurch airport in the morning. The weather was perfectly nice, sunny. I planned to meet my boyfriend, Mr. B and his friends in the airport. We’re going to use a campervan for exploring the island. Why a campervan?

We want to save time during our trip. It was winter, some of the road in South Island would be covered with snow. There’s a possibility we couldn’t continue the journey because of the snow. So, if the street is covered with snow, we could just sleep in the car, waiting. No need to go back to hotel or lodge or motel. Basically, we can sleep whenever we want to (not literally).  

So, our first agenda was taking the car. It took longer than we imagined. Maybe because it was a campervan, need more stuff to deal with? The rental car company showed us where is the tank for clean water supply, which one for the dirty water, which one the electricity cable, etc. They also taught us how to change the tank, to charge the electricity, checking the temperature in the car, and so many other things. We have to work together in order to have a safe journey. A campervan is totally different with other car. There are a lot of things that we have to be careful while driving the campervan (ex: electricity – the fridge, the water – toilet and the sink, the gas for cooking). Finally after one hour and a half, we got the van and ready to go!

We planned to do city tour Christchurch, but because of the delayed, we skipped the city tour. We bought groceries before directly drove to Lake Tekapo. We planned to stay in Lake Tekapo for a night. It takes around 3 hours by a car from Christchurch to Tekapo. Since it was winter, the sun went down earlier. When we reached there, it was already dark. We also hadn’t break the fasting. We finally parked in the van parking area close to the Lake Tekapo. There is no electricity or water supply in the parking area. We used our own supply from the van. It was so freaking cold, zero degree Celsius. Even though we stayed inside the van, cooking, and having the meal, we still have to wear full clothes and jacket. It was really cold, but since we’re inside together with friends, somehow, I felt warm.