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Published: September 7th 2009
The First Night of Campervanning
Allen is making pasta with red sauce, as the temp drops 15 degrees right after sundown.On down (via a $40 plane ticket - so cheap it was sketical) to Christchurch (which is actually the furthest thing from Christ or a Church) and then piled into the nissan that we came to know as "Bessie" or "All The Stuff I Own." Salvador Dahli was the inspiration for our van's graphic presentation, which drew plenty of attention and laughs. We headed west towards Arthurs Pass for snow, and after getting half way up the learning curve of driving her, on the left, up n down moutain roads, in the snow and rain and wind, we crashed......for the night, in a little park next to a lake(I'm not good with names?). Testing out the gas grill, we chowed on lamb steaks and washed it down with plenty of Speights (the PBR of New Zealand) and were asleep before 9.
Not so early the next morning, we rose and eventually made it to Broken River for what turned out to be 1.5 hour hike in snowboard gear to the lifts (tow-rope contraptions referred to as a 'nut-cracker'). Broken River was a steep and windy but intimate little mountain face of mostly skiers (20 people on the whole mountain). Wiped
Top of the world...
Or at least in the clouds at Broken River, looking over the snowy ridge. (left - plummet to fluffy, cold death or right - to board down in powder to the lodge) out we drove only to the Authurs Pass public restrooms and cooked pasta in front of the only lights we could find, those coming from the ladies room.
After we heard that skiing conditions were about to turn for the worst we headed for the west coast which beautiful but sketchy. Stopping for directions, petrol and to load up at the liquor store up due to the news of bad weather for the next 4 or 5 days. We bunked at a backpacker mostel in Franz Joesph in the pouring rain to dry out our snowboard gear and prep for the driving ahead, hoping to visit the glacier the next day, but the cats and dogs didn't stop execpt for 15 min in the carpark by the Glacier.
We made it to queenstown, quite a lively and expensive little place. We partied with some blokes from OZ, Played bingo at the casino bar and won a wii snowboarding contest for a free lift at Treble Cone and ski rental for the day. We raced back to Christchurch shrortly thereafter, parked the van on the street next the police station and after a bit of wandering for a decent
Hiking up to Broken River
Allen and his pink "Mr. Sweet" Bookbag not far behind bar or 2, we closed the curtains and prayed we wouldnt be towed away before we awoke.
A good 6 hour drive later, we made it almost to picton, where the sun finally started to show. After a bit of exploring Whale Bay, we camped by the ocean, flat as a pancake due to the 20+mph gusts off shore, that kept the campervan shaking all night. We awoke to explore Picton, scope out the ferry and proceed to tour a few wineries and one brewery all before our 1pm ferry ride to Wellington.
In welly, we started by getting lost(unnavigated exploring) and proceeded to explore the nightlight this town had to offer. We then had to race up to Hamilton, crash at Jake's place and bring the van back to Auckland on August 31st. Not until we already checked in at the Auckland hostel did we realize it wasnt due back until Sept 1st. What a blurr of a trip.
for and on towards Picton to catch the ferry North to Wellington.
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John B
non-member comment
holy guacamole!!
dang yo!..new zealand looks ridiculous!!