3 Pedals?!?!?!

We had Christchurch all planed out this time, we had a place to say activities booked and the elements decide to take a turn for the worst, cold and rainy weather is all we get all day. Which really doesn't work for horseback riding so they called us to reschedule but then the only time we could do it was when we planned on zip lining which is unfortunate so we forfeited the zip lining and decided to do the horseback riding tomorrow!

So we had the great idea to rent a car and drive down the coast to Dunedin from Christchurch on Tuesday so we could take advantage of the beaches along the way. We have the car for 3 days and so went to pick it up on Sunday. We bought the full insurance policy as a precaution because only 20% of Kiwi's have insurance. They pulled up our little car (emphasis on LITTLE); a tiny gold Daihatsu Sirion. As soon as we got in the car we knew we had made the right move and purchased the full insurance; it was manual! I hadn't driven manual in about a decade and Montana had only tried it a few times.

On top of the stick shift, we are also driving on the other side of the street, which only made driving more overwhelming and difficult. Montana bravely got behind the wheel and actually did very well! We stalled out a few times, but she picked it up quickly. We never realized just how confusing it is to drive in Christchurch! We're used to the grid-like layout of Calgary, not the twisty turny streets of New Zealand.

It almost lead to tears and temper tantrums for both of us, but we finally made it back to the hostel without damaging the car or ourselves.