Campervan travels
Trip Start
Jan 22, 2004
1
12
13
Trip End
Aug 06, 2004
Auckland, New Zealand
Friday, July 16, 2004
So once we got down to Christchurch we hired a campervan, which we named Keith (it was gonna be Jesus for a while but thought it might be a bit strong for a piece of shit campervan). It was pretty cheap to hire and was our bed as well for most of the time, although it was -2 degrees in the depths of the south island, which wasnt much fun. Cos of this we ended up buying 2 water bottles, a blanket and a duvet to put on top of our 2 sleeping bags. Jo didnt help matters when she left the window open for a couple of nights so that ice formed on the inside of the windows - great work, genius. Although shes still denying it.
Anyway we got stuck into the thermal spa pool thingys over there - we did them about 4 times in various parts of the country - such a relief to get in a nice warm pool, pretty relaxing as well. New Zealand was cool as well in that there werent that many people that live there (only 4 million), and most of the country was in the sticks, so you get some real hick little towns. We pulled up to camp in Murchison one night and went for a beer in the local bar and the whole pub turned round and stared for ages at "them strangers". Didnt hang around for all that long in there.
Maybe the nicest place we went to was Franz Josef, which is a little village next to this huge glacier, and is surrounded by mountains. We took a day trek up the glacier which was pretty cool although I have no pics loaded up because my camera ran out of bastard batteries. Take my word for it - very nice. It was round those parts where we did our tandem skydive as well, which was a bit mental to be honest. The weather was a bit shit on the day we were meant to do it so we thought we were gonna get away with dodging it, but it cleared up around lunchtime so we headed to the "skydive centre", which tunred out to be a wooden hut in a field with a dodgy little airstrip and a pretty small plane. It didnt inspire confidence. Also having to write down your next of kins phone number just beforehand was pretty scary. And having 5 minutes training was a bit worrying. Fuck it, it was actually all pretty scary from start to finish when I think about it now. On the way up we got some great views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman, but neither of us were really taking it in. Then all of a sudden I have to swing my legs out of the plane and dangle out while Rod, this sort of redneck kiwi guy who Im attached to, takes a couple of pictures. At this point you dont give 2 shits for the pics - you just really want putting back in the plane. But we dropped, and the freefall was mental; after a couple of seconds the plane is just a small speck hundreds of feet above you. Rod taps me on the head and gives me a thumbs up to see if Im ok; I give him one back but Im not feeling fine at all, Im still shitting it. Then he pulls the cord and for about 10 seconds I get a pretty intense pain coming through my groin straps, like horses were trying to pull my legs off or something. After that you just parachute down slowly and land with a little bump. I couldnt stop laughing when I hit the ground cos it was a bit surreal, but great fun. Jo had a good one as well although if Im honest I was only thinking about my own survival after I jumped out of that plane - sorry about that old girl. We both went and had a well earned pint back at Franz Josef afterwards, where I let her beat me at pool.
Made our way through loads of other cool little towns after that, like Wanaka, which had a great little cinema with armchairs and sofas - well cosy. Troy was a bit shit though. Although I dont think Jo minded the male talent. Then we had a good time in Queenstown which is a bit of a party town near the bottom of the south island - walked into KFC there and a lad that I got pissed with in Bangkok 4 months earlier served me - dead surreal. But funny. Did this jetboat ride down there which does these big old 360 degree spins which was fun -I didnt get wet but Jo got nailed a couple of times. Yo also get a great view of the Remarkables (this huge snowtopped mountain range) from the town - its in one of the pics above.
As we headed back up thru the south Island to get to Auckland we got stuck into the self titled NZ Minigolf World Series - needless to say I took the title although Jo was a close second. You wouldnt want to see her lose her rag with a golf club though - not pretty. We played hours of shithead in the camper as well (its a card game dad) - I was 4-0 down at one point but came back to take the series 5-4. In your face Gibson (although i wasnt the most gracious loser when 4-0 down to be honest - I lost it once or twice).
We stopped in Rotorua just before leaving for a mudbath which was fun, although I swear it took us more than a week to get the minging smell off us. I still had it in Fiji for a while - felt like a leper.
Got a fairly unpleasant surprise when we hit Auclkand, a stone had chipped the windscreen and had cracked a little, which meant we had to fork out 800 dollars. Not great news, but thankfully Jo has been working and doing overtime while Im away so shes taking care of it..
Would definitely go back to New Zealand as it is so beautiful as you have probably seen from the pics. Lots of cool animals obviously as well. But at the end of it I was looking forward to getting a bit of my tan back in Fiji, which Im gonna be doing in about an hour when I get back on the beach. Get in. Home in 8 days after a 4 day stop in LA, to get back to tropical Sidcup. Actually quite looking forward to it now. Sausages. Mmmmmm.
