Interlude
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2010
1
80
92
Trip End
Apr 30, 2011
Kurow, South Island, New Zealand
Friday, March 18, 2011
We set off from Dunedin in the rain making a quick stop to see the steepest street in the world, not an earth shattering experience but might come in useful for a pub quiz or for filling an awkward silence at the dinner table...
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Further up the coast we make a coffee, toilet and picture stop to see the Devils Marbles, which were much more photogenic and interesting. Made by spheritic cementation these huge boulders are washed out of the mud-stone cliffs.
We were heading north to Lake Tepako and were due to arrive early afternoon, the bus had other ideas. Cruising along we suddenly hear that awful metallic clunking you definitely do not want to hear in any vehicle. What had broken, fallen off? After a quick check all the guages etc are OK and the bus can crawl forward - but there is a clunking. Nothing for it but to send for a mechanic, luckily there is a small (very) town 5kms away and someone can come to help. While waiting for the man who can a motorist pulls up and hands our driver a large piece of metal!!! This is what has fallen off - it looks significant. The mechanic established that it is the cooling fan that has sheered it's bolts and that he thinks he can fix it. We creep up the road very slowly keeping an eye on the temperature guage - made it before the red line.
So we were stranded in Kurow not a normal stopping place and not really a lot to do. The sun is shinning and we make the best of it while we wait for a courier to deliver the right size bolts. I investigated the local wool merchant who was kind enough to open up some bales to show me the difference in the types of wool. Then down the street to chat with some locals who were going to make pumpkin soup and finally I indulged in New Zealand ice cream!!!
It took 4 hours but it did get fixed and we missed our afternoon at Lake Tekapo but instead had a day in small town NZ which turned out to be very enjoyable.
