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Published: August 19th 2006
SNOW SNOW SNOW
The budget allowed me one day up the mountain. HEAVEN.It was certainly strange touching down in NZ. Not because the temperature dropped 30 degrees, not because the sun had been replaced by clouds, not because all the crazy Vietnamese had disappeared, but because it was kind of a home to me.
It certainly wasn't MY home, but it was ONE of my homes. It had been four years since I was last living here, working as a high powered........ cleaner....
For four months we had stepped from the unknown to the unknown, but now, I was stepping into some old memories. But not only was I stepping into those memories, but my adorable wife was beside me, looking at my old memories for the first time.
There was a thousand things I wanted to show her but I knew they could wait, we had some business to take care of. We had to find Victor!
Victor was our van. A Mercedes Sprinter if you want to get technical. We found him quite near the airport in a depot full of other lesser vans and tourists (yes, if you must know, lesser tourists). It was strange setting eyes on him for the first time. Neither Helen nor
A frozen world.
There was no snow here, everything had just frozen. I knew quite what to expect. We knew he would be our house for the next month and a half but neither of us knew how he would welcome or facilitate us.
I must admit, when I first saw him he looked like one of Helen's romantic novels (basic). How on earth would we live in a van for forty days!?! We had already agreed that Helen would have the honour of driving him on day one. This was due to Helen having used me as a pillow for the entire 10 hours during the flight from Vietnam, which in turn had kept me up all night long. There weren't even any good movies to keep me interested!
We were both tentative when Helen eased him out of the depot (ok, ok... we were scared out of our wits!) - what if we crashed into a pole? Or a wall? Or another car? Or a small lady? Oh dear, the endless possibilities of losing our deposit and wiping out the older population of New Zealand! Surely we weren't old enough to be driving such a beast. Although I admit Helen is a very accomplished and skilled driver she
Brrrrrr...
It was so cold that this water fountain FROZE!! did look somewhat comical clutching onto the steering wheel. It was bigger than her.
We headed for a safehouse on day one. Helen managed to steer us all the way to Rob and Steph's (my brother's fiancee's parents), an 8 hour drive to Tauranga, and we were welcomed with open arms. I must admit it was nice to see a friendly face. We were both seriously jet lagged and were in desperate need of some home comforts.
After staying with Steph and Rob for a couple of days we decided it was time to venture down south to see my brother (Ben) in Wellington. The drive was nine hours long (including a few stops for pies and feeding the ducks). I decided that I wanted to get behind the wheel for the drive, and in fact, apart from a short two hour journey, the first day was the last Helen saw of the steering wheel.
I became addicted. A mad man you could say! Such size! Such power! Such... such... Oh I don't know! I just liked driving a big white van (it must be the 'common-as-muck' blood pumping through my veins). Parts of me wanted to
Here we are again.
Yep... the lovely couple. wind the window down and whistle at the women walking past; parts of me wanted to cut people up on the highway... how could I have got through life only driving a Fiat CINQUECENTO!!!! It is unthinkable!
I guess you are wondering why I have written almost a dozen paragraphs about a van? Well, the campervan was our experience of New Zealand. Over 40 days we travelled over 6000kms. We dropped the backpacking lifestyle for a driving lifestyle. I must admit, we both fell in love with it. We averaged 8 hours a day driving. It's crazy to think that we could have driven from our UK home to Scotland back every other day!
We adjusted to life in the campervan quickly. Each night we found a site and 'Plugged In'. We hadn't planned on using power camp sites but the it was so cold that if we hadn't plugged in we would have frozen.
After staying a couple of days in Wellington with my brother and his fiancee (Bronnie) we decided to head over on the ferry to the south island. It was aproaching the middle of the winter and we wanted to get as far
It's snowing!
It's blooming snowing! We were sooooo excited! south as possible before it got too ridiculously cold. When we got on the ferry we heard on the news that most of the east coast of the south island was under snow and without power. It was going to be cold...
It was a bit of a shock having to wear coats and gloves. We had just come from a constant temperature of 35degrees. It had been four months since we had experienced anything under 30degrees.
The temperature at the top of the south island during the day was quite nice. It stayed around the 10 degree mark. But during the night it would drop below zero... it was certainly a time to keep warm.
Both Helen and I enjoyed the cold weather. It was actually a huge relief to be away from the heat (I am sure most of the readers in England understand this - the complaining about the heatwave has reached all the way to OZ, be proud).
I would go as far as to say we loved the cold weather. Don't get me wrong, there were times when it was almost unbearable. When we were in Lake Tekapo it was MINUS
14! That was certainly a chilly one. But to make up for it we got to wake up the next morning and look out at a frosty blue lake and a land covered in deep rich white snow.
The south island is beautiful. Even more beautiful in the winter. If anyone is planning on coming to NZ but don't want to go during the winter then I strongly urge you to change your mind. Seeing snow-capped mountains was a real highlight for both me and Helen. During the winter, when there are few tourists, the south island is deserted (apart from the ski field towns). We could be driving for two or three hours and wouldn't see a single car. It was awesome. When we finally reached a town we would discover it had a population of 12! Hilarious! I wonder if they all knew each other?
The scenery was amazing, I was glad to drive so that Helen could look out each day and just enjoy the beauty this part of the world has to offer. From mountains to lakes, gorges to flat plains, New Zealand has it all.
The highlights on the south island were
Parking up
Just thought we should park up next to some snow-capped mountains. As you do. all snow related. Our first was the Fox Glacier. I had hiked the Franz Josef Glacier four years previously and knew that Helen had to do the same thing. I would say that I enjoyed Fox even more than Franz Josef because it was less touristy. It certainly was strange to be completely immersed in ice and snow for a whole day.
The second highlight was going back to Queenstown. I had lived there for six months and had fond memories of my time there. I even managed to get up the mountain for a days worth of snowboarding. It had been the best winter in years and the ski fields were great. I tried to act cool when everyone was talking about "freshies" and commenting on how the snow was better than last year.
It was certainly strange walking about the town with my wife. Four years ago I was living there without a friend in the world, cleaning offices and snowboarding, and now... my beautiful little wife was next to me!
I bored Helen to death with all my old haunts. "This office I cleaned for 2 hours each day. Oh, and here is the
Helen keeping warm
It was cold in the van. Here is how Helen fought it. A FULL SIZE BABYGROW!! bank that I used to clean on a wednesday, the desk over there was always the messiest..." What an interesting bloke I am.
The final highlight of the south island, and I think the number one highlight of the whole time in New Zealand was when we went to Lake Tekapo.
It had been years since we had seen a real amount of snow. It had snowed in Queenstown but it didn't really settle. But on our way to Lake Tekapo we realised it was going to get really cold. The world was beginning to freeze!
It was so cold that we had to stay in a backpackers hostel for the night because the road up to the campsite was frozen and closed. Victor was freezing up as we were driving... the bloomin windscreen was turning to ice and the fog almost made driving impossible. We did panic a little... But once the fog cleared and the road opened we suddenly saw a meter of snow covering all of the land. It was beautiful.
The other highlights in NZ were animal related. We saw penguins and also went on dolphin watching which was great.
The
So far from home!
London is a long long long way away! North Island is completely different to the South Island. The cars are more frequent, the people are busier... life is a little more alive in the north island - but in many ways this spoiled the beauty of NZ for us.
Although we managed to travel the entire country without putting a dent in Victor there was an incident that I would like to forget. In Paihia, in the north island, we (ok, I) had a bit of a problem when we (ok, I) had to turn in the road. Having successfully turned around (or so I thought) the bank gave way and I slipped into a ditch! Yes... WE were stuck! It was so embarrassing! We were there for about 45 minutes and had spoken to at least 25 different people who drove past in their cars. "Are you alright there?" they would ask. Of course we were alright! We normally like to strand ourselves in mud!!!!
Finally a local farm-lad turned up in his 4x4 and a chain and yanked us out (I was now the blithering English tourist, ever thankful for his manly car and manly chain). He nodded his head, gave a grunt and
Messing around.
We have nothing better to do than jump around on a beach. then huffed out "Welcome to New Zealand" - the little bugger!
Ok... so I was embarrassed... Now for Helen...
A couple days before we left for OZ we met up with my good friend Adam. He was touring his fantastic play in New Zealand with his company Plested & Brown and we managed to meet up with him finally. Claire, Michelle and James were also there (the other players in Plested in Brown). After a fun day in Rotorua we all made it to a blues night in the theatre they were due to perform in the next night. Well, in the end Clare ended up performing on both nights... Let me explain.
After a couple of bottles of wine between Claire, Michelle and Helen the girls confidence had grown so much that they thought they could dance like professionals. The girls were dancing around in the aisles so much that they were invited to join the band on stage. Suddenly James, Adam and I were not only watching a blues band but also Claire, Helen and Michelle strutting their stuff on stage!! If you don't believe it, I HAVE VIDEO FOOTAGE!
Needless to say after
Travelling the world!
Look at all our lovely stamps!! some more wine (and as rumour has it, some tequila) and a couple of hours of dancing Helen was a little worse for wear... She didn't move for about 6 hours the next day. She told me a mysterious bug must have hit her during the night because she spent most of it in the toilet! It's funny how these "bugs" can get you eh!
Other than that night of fun we didn't do much. We spent lots of time reading, lots of time driving. We went on numerous walks and went out to eat maybe two or three times. I would say we had beans on toast half of the time and breakfast cereals the other half every day for 40 days.
We simply loved our time in New Zealand. It was fantastic to wear a jumper. Fantastic to be able to cuddle each other without sticking together. Fantastic to simply breathe fresh air in a calm, quiet land.
When I travelled New Zealand on my own I used to think "Wow! That volcano is amazing..." or "Wow, that glacier is awesome!"... then I would think "If only I had someone to share it with"... I
Fox Glacier
The Glacier walk was definitely a highlight. think you can guess what I'm getting at.. again!
For me New Zealand will always be about Victor, baked beans, the snow and introducing my beautiful wife to
one of my homes...
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Roger Wills
non-member comment
NZ Blog
Great new blog Sam. Love the snow, and the dancing !