Day 264-266: Auckland to Westport, New Zealand

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Saturday, October 17th

Nicol made a delicious omelet breakfast after which we continued preparing our van. Ferdi went to the shop in search of a few more items. We fitted the last few parts, glued the carpet in place, put the mattress and bedding in, followed by our packing containers. The Boesman was coming together great!

Keira had a nap so we waited until she woke before we left. At 15:30 we said goodbye to Team Smit, stopped at the Pack 'n' Save to pick up supplies, then set off for Hamilton. We were in a daze. We couldn't believe that we were finally on the next leg of our journey.

We arrived at Siubhan and Tony's new place in Hamilton around 7pm. It was great to see those two again. They had moved up in the world since last we saw them. Siubhan had a full time job, Tony was working as well, they'd moved to their own place and had bought a nice car. They've done a good job and we were real happy for them.

A couple of their other traveling friends were staying over and we all shared a few beers and a lot of laughter. Ferdi's jaw was still hurting from the surgery and all the laughing did it no favours. Near midnight we settled in for our first night's sleeping in the Boesman. It was very comfy indeed!

Today's highlights:
1. Pointing the Boesman's nose south and heading out on the next leg of our journey.
2. Seeing Tony and Siubhan again.

Sunday, October 18th

After a shower and breakfast we said goodbye to our Irish friends. We left Hamilton just after 10am and headed south to Lake Taupo in heavy rain. We soon discovered that our right-hand wiper moved too far to the right. It would catch on the side of the window then bounce back onto the windscreen. We used the wipers as little as we dared for fear of tearing it apart. Eventually the wiper caught properly and pulled the blade apart, so we had to drive without wipers until we reached the next town. Here we stopped and Ferdi reassembled the wiper, then got to use our new toolbox to remove and adjust the wiper. Then the rain stopped. The joke was on us.

We continued on past the Huka Falls, through Taupo and eventually stopped for peanut butter and syrup sammies just past Turangi. Our next stop was in Taihape (the gumboot town) to book our ferry tickets to the South Island. The drive was long and hard and we got very very tired. We had a break in Bulls where we got chocolates "to get our blood sugar up".

Eight and a half hours after leaving Hamilton we arrived in a cold and wet Wellington. We had to pull out our winter gear for the first time in weeks. We stopped by the shops for a few supplies, then drove to Clive and Lize's place. They whipped up some burgers and chips and Lize assembled a huge and decadent dessert; sponge cake covered in chocolate with cherries on top. We nearly died.

Today's highlights:
1. Arriving at Clive and Lize's.
2. Great dinner followed by the vicious dessert.

Monday, October 19th

We want to congratulate boeda Konrad and (soon to be) sus Vicky on their engagement! May God bless your union and bond you together forever. May He fill your lives with the happiness and joy of a common purpose. We are sooo proud of you and truly hope we can be there for your wedding.

We went to bed waaaaay too late but luckily woke only a little late. Our ferry was departing at 8am but we had to be there by 7am. After showing off our van we said a hasty farewell to our friends and drove to the ferry terminal. We were only 15minutes late but as we drove into the terminal the ferry company phoned us to hear where we were. All the other vehicles had already been loaded and we were the last. We parked on the ferry and made our way to the cafeteria for breakfast.

We had a bit of a fall out and got all childish by barely speaking to each other the rest of the day. We watched a movie, then sat outside baking in the sun. We arrived in Picton at 11:20 and went to the iSite to get info on the nearest printing shop because we needed to print out our log building manuals. They directed us to a place in Blenheim. We were planning to pass through there anyway so it worked out perfectly.

At the Stationary Warehouse we were pleasantly surprised to find that they could print the manuals double-sided and bind them for a quarter of what we expected to pay! Brilliant!

With that done we set off for Westport, 290km to the west. It was a long drive because we averaged only about 70km/h. The Boesman goes fine on the windless flat parts of the road, but add a bit of a hill or a strong head-wind and the speed soon drops to 60km/h. We stopped for lunch and after a nap we continued on. We arrived in Westport at about 18:30, found a camping spot in Carters Beach, made dinner, had a shower, made peace, then crawled into bed. We were very ready for a good night's sleep.

Today's highlights:
1. Arriving in the South Island again.
2. Getting our manuals printed properly and cheaply.
3. Arriving in Westport.

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Comments

[thetravelbugtribe]

great that you are finally back on the road again. Is that our old water barrell we see? looking forward to more travelling adventures. We are off to Tauranga this weekend for a bit of exploring ourselves.

[Ferdi and Talita]

Water barrel
Yup! That's your old water barrel alright. Thanx again for the donation! We've got big plans for it. :-)