We’re up about an hour earlier than we expected, due to not fully adjusting into holiday mode yet, but we embrace with a hotel coffee before getting up and checking out of the hotel

Dave finds us Belle (café & micro roastery) to head to for more coffee and some food – we go through Victoria Park, which has a few statues and pretty water features, before reaching New Regent Street

This is a jazzy street with various eateries and a tram line running through with pretty regular trams!

We have a coffee each and share a ham, cheese & onion toastie as well as a spicy chicken wrap – not too expensive either!

After, we stroll to follow the tram track’s route which takes us past some cool penguin art on the side of Novotel and the Christchurch Cathedral with some new renovations due to the damage from the 2010/11 earthquake

There are a couple markets being held and then we find the High Street – it was originally called Sumner Road and became pedestrian-only (other than the tram) back in the 80s

Trying to have a look around some recommendations we’ve been given about the city, we head over to have a look at Riverside Market: it’s a very busy and vibrant food court with market stalls too – we’ll definitely be coming back!

Nearby is also the Bridge of Remembrance which has a collection of people around preparing for a peaceful protest of some sort but we have to move on

We catch the number 8 bus and get back to the airport where we get a shuttle lift with our car rental company, Snap – it’s a pretty quick process and we get on the road!

After about an hour, we have a brief stop in Ashburton to grab some supplies for our roadtrip from New World and Chemist Warehouse before carrying on

Another hour later and we arrive into Timaru – we’re here to have a look around Caroline Bay as we’ve been told it’s a hotspot for little blue penguins!

We stroll around the protected sand dunes and onto the beach before finding the “penguin highway”

There’s a clearly allocated area for the penguins to roost with boxes that some must be sleeping in; sadly, we only have time to visit now so didn’t get a chance to see them but good to know for another time

Back in the car, we carry on our journey and head inland on the Starlight Highway

The weather has been pretty lovely all day but suddenly starts to take a turn – it starts pelting it down with rain and basically out of nowhere becomes a lightning storm!

Eventually, we reach Lake Tekapo and the weather is better here – we wander to the water’s edge and around The Church of the Good Shepherd

The water is impressively light blue; we wander over the Maclaren Footbridge and we accidentally catch the dam being opened at 6pm (see the featured image)

After, we drive a little down the road to where Lake Tekapo Lookout is on Google Maps to get some more pretty views

As time is getting on, we get on the road again in an attempt to reach out accommodation for the night

There are a couple things we pass that we’re interested to get a closer look at but we’ll be coming back this way tomorrow… though we just can’t resist the Lake Pukaki Viewpoint

We then finally get to our last stop for the day, Otematata’s Best Dam Pub, after almost 370 kilometres!

Here, we have a treat as it’s our 37 month anniversary – yes, we do try and celebrate every month as a little treat to ourselves – of a couple of stone grills: one beef and one lamb

The pub dies down and we’re recommended a little nearby walk to the Otematata Wetlands – it’s round the corner and we do hear a lot of frogs and native birds but it’s getting a little too dark to see (and the clouds mean no stars are visible, sadly)

We make a sort of loop and head back to get some rest