February 23, 2026
Today was mainly a driving day to get back to Christchurch near the airport, where we had to get ready to leave for our flight to Auckland the next morning. Our time on the South Island was coming to an end.
We woke up to clear blue skies in the morning: nice weather although it was still a bit windy and chilly. We checked out of the room and drove across the street to the Moeraki Centenary Park where there was a small beach and some nice views.
We drove to Oamaru and spent a couple of hours walking around the wharf area. We walked to the Oamaru Penguins observation area. This is another paid attraction to see the little blue penguins scamper up the beach after sunset. However, it is more of a grandstand experience than what we had in Dunedin, and no photography was allowed. During the day there were no penguins, but we did see fur seals sleeping on the rocks.
We walked down Holmes Wharf and had some nice views of the area.
We stopped at the New World supermarket in Oamaru to buy a few treats and items for dinner. Then we continued the long drive to Christchurch. We checked into our room at the North South Holiday Park that was just a few miles north of the Christchurch airport. We had the "Tourist Flat" cabin with a kitchenette.
We made spaghetti and a salad for dinner. One drawback of flying to the North Island vs. using the ferry was we had to either use up or throw away our perishables, and then we would have to restock again once we got off the plane. So we used as much as we could for our dinner that night and for breakfast the following morning. We ended up only having to give away a few condiments: we donated them to the shared kitchen used by the campers.
After dinner Heinrich drove to the gas station down the street to do the final fill up on the rental car. We cleaned out the car and repacked our suitcases for our plane flight, and then we went to bed early to get a good night's sleep.