Sun, 1st Mar, 2026 Ibis Budget Hotel, Brisbane Airport, Qld to Harewood Lodge, Christchurch, NZ (by Qantas)

Up very early to be at the International Terminal 3 hours before our flight at 8.25am to Christchurch, New Zealand. Did our bag check-in, all automated - where’s the human touch. Then through security and Border Patrol check of our passport with an automated facial recognition thing. Then through Duty Free and bought a bottle of Kahula to drink over then and another bottle and 3 rums to pick up on our return - certainly cheaper. Got some breakfast - they don’t miss you for that, $48 for 2 rolls and 2 coffees!

Along to our boarding gate to wait. On board - no leg room. I didn’t pay the extra for the leg room as it is only a 3 hour flight. Eventually we headed off for the long taxi ride down the tarmac then off we go. 

Nice view over the Brisbane River as we took off.

Onto our Qantas plane - last time I did this was to Auckland in 1982 for a coach tour around the two islands. Loved every minute of it and made some great friends, three that I am still in contact with. Unfortunately that flight was from Cairns to Brisbane first and we landed hard knocking the ceiling out of first class so we had to wait for a new plane and crew so I didn’t get to my accommodation in Auckland till 3am the next morning. Certainly made landings something that I didn’t like for a while.

Sadly they have crammed the seats too so not much leg room but the seat was comfortable. Good service - nice hot lunch, drinks, snacks and lots of movies to watch.

There was a moving map to watch with details of our height, speed and the very cold temperature outside -55 degrees when we at our highest.

Took a few photos of the ‘long white clouds’ with peeks through the clouds at mountains below us and a river.

Heading into Christchurch.

We have landed. Let the adventure begin.

Unfortunately it was raining when we landed so not the best views on arrival.

Landed in Christchurch at 3.10 pm NZ time (daylight saving time) as it is 3 hours ahead of Brisbane now. Through Customs - all good. Collected our bags then put them through the big x-ray machine then out we go.

New Zealand (Aotearoa in Maori) - Land of the Long White Cloud. It is called this because of the long, white cloud formations that early Polynesian explorers, specifically Kupe and his wife, Kuramarotini, spotted on the horizon, signalling the presence of land. Over 1,000 years ago the Maori came by canoe from a South Pacific homeland called Hawaiki. 100,000 Maori were here prior to European settlement. The 1^st European to discover NZ was Dutch explore Abel Tasman on 13 Dec 1642 when he sighted the southern alps and anchored in Golden Bay near Nelson. Captain Cook circumnavigated NZ after his cabin boy sighted land near Gisborne on 6 Oct 1769. Whalers, sealers and traders followed, by 1839 there were 2000 Europeans in NZ. Lte-Gov Capt William Hobson arrived in 1840 and signed the Treaty with the Maori chief on 6 Feb 1840 at Waitangi, Bay of Islands. There were gold rushes in 1860s. NZ independence from Britain was proclaimed in 1947.

New Zealand is about 268,000 square kilometres - similar to UK or Japan but by comparison has just over 5 million people compared to 125 million in Japan. 

Got a taxi to our accommodation on the other side of the airport. Another small place but nice and clean. Arranged for the taxi driver to pick us up in the morning to take us to pick up our camper at 8.30am.  

Pouring with rain so didn’t take a photo of our home for the night - Harewood Lodge which is part of the golf course on the other side of the airport. Chap was very helpful. No food outlet nearby but he said to help ourselves to anything in the communal kitchen so it was cheesy toast and cuppas for dinner tonight. We were so tired we just wanted to go to bed.

Nice hot shower and we had the heater going in the room as well as the electric blanket so we were very snug as thunder rumbled outside with flashes of lightning. Forecast is for it to clear up in a day or so.

Virginia messaged - they are in Christchurch for a birthday party so if we need help with anything to let them know. I got our NZ phone sorted and sent her our number. Had problems with that too as Steve’s phone said it was network locked so I had to put it in my phone.