We got our first glimpse of New Zealand's beautiful country through the planes windows. Snowy mountain caps were peaking out from under a thick blanket of white clouds as we flew down to land. When we came level with the clouds it was like looking out at a pure white desert made from soft cotton and the huge mountains were far away in the distance. The mountain tops were so big it was hard to imagine them continuing underneath the clouds. Chris wasn't as excited as me, I had never seen snowy mountains like that before but he said he had seen them lots of times when he went skiing in the past.

We landed in Christchurch at 12:05pm and were both still very sleepy and looking forward to getting in our camper van. After we collected our bags  we headed straight to a pay phone where we called the Apollo branch and arranged our free pick up. They were only around the corner so said they wouldn't be long. Outside the airport the air felt very fresh and the sun was shining brightly, it really did feel like it was winter and for a moment it felt nice, but after five minutes I could feel the cold air begin to go through my clothes. Suddenly it didn't feel fresh anymore and I was shivering cold. 
"New clothes! We need new warm clothes!" I said to Chris while he was hugging me, then the van turned up. 

At the office we had to go through and sign some paper work. The lady looked and sounded a bit simple and as if we weren't already knackered she was draining the life out of us, or at least me anyway. Good job Chris knows how to concerntrate because I didn't listen to a thing she said. Chris signed the paper work and then the lady walked into the back of the office. She had lots of pens on her desk, so I stole two of them for Chris. When she came back she handed Chris a set of keys to our camper then walked outside with us. The first thing we both noticed about the van was how huge it was! Apparently the company was so busy that they could only offer us a deluxe camper van! Looking around at all the small vans parked in sight, it didn't look that busy but we weren't about to argue with her, we got a free upgrade! The lady asked us to step inside then she showed us where everything was and how to use it all, then she gave us a map of the nearest holiday home. We thanked her and said goodbye, then buckled up and hit the road for the first time. 

It was the first time I had to give directions from a map, after going down a few wrong roads we finally managed to find our way to the holiday park from the Top Ten group. It was Nz$35 per night which we thought was quite a lot considering we only wanted a parking spot. We already had a kitchen and bathroom so wouldn't need to use any of the facilities on site. So we only paid for one night and got another map showing where to go for warm clothing and food. I was still shivering even though I had about four layers of clothing on! 

We easily found a nearby shopping centre where we filled our fridge and cupboards, then we drove back to the park and settled in for the night. Chris brought the bed down from the ceiling by pressing a button on the wall. Once it was all the way down it covered the sofa area at the back. The whole layout of the van was really nice! Although the bathroom is very small. We both looked and pressed buttons on our heater which was on the ceiling. We couldn't work out how to turn the dam thing on! It was so cold I grabbed a duvet and wrapped it around me. It had been a long time since I had seen my breath coming out of my mouth and nose! We tried for about half an hour but had no luck, eventually Chris went to reception and rang the office. He wasn't sure he would get through to anyone because the office had just closed but luckily someone did pick up. He told them about our heater and then they asked him "Have you tried plugging the van into the electric mains?" Duh! How dumb did we feel, but the simple lady didn't tell us we had to do that to make it work! Chris came back and did what they said and then suddenly we had heating! At last! We're not sure how it's going to feel on nights when we are not on a site, we have a goon bag which we will definitely be using as a hot water bottle. Chris wacked the heating up to thirty degrees then we snuggled up in bed. I stuck a film on to watch but we fell asleep within ten minutes.