Byebye Vinnie

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Yesterday we had to wave goodbye to our trusty campervan, Vincent. We had some good times ... he
saw us through sun and drizzle, did our Vince. Always ready to let us brew up a cuppa at a moment's
notice. Things won't be the same again.

It was fantastic to drive across a not so well trodden and partly unsealed road (shh, don't tell the hire company) from Napier to Taihape. Beautiful scenery, hardly any other cars on the road .. we spotted a river part way so stopped for a quick swim about in the sunshine. Sweet freedom.

In the end Chris chickened out of the Swing at Taihape, leaving me to brave it alone, but I'm glad I did. The drop wasn't as terrifying as I'd thought it might have been (though my facial expressions in the pics say otherwise) so maybe a bungee next?!

Anyway we're in Wellington now, campervan free and it's bloody raining. Hate the rain, hate it. It scuppered our beach plans, but we've made the best of it by jumping into hot pools at every opportunity (In fact I now refuse to go anywhere that doesn't have private hotpools for my personal use. No pool, no way thankyouplease.)

We wandered around Te Papa museum, hopped on a tour bus to see the main sights (and some Lord of
the Rings film sights for you geeks that I know are out there). Last night there was an outdoors screening of a motown documentary which was great fun (no rain for that, thank goodness) and today we saw Slumdog Millionairre at the Embassy cinema. Really great film. Go watch. Made me want to go back to India again, though that may sound a wee bit strange if you've seen the film.

Tomorrow - up early to ferry cross the mersey-uh I mean the Cook Strait to the south island. Let's hope the sun follows us. Got some sea kayaking planned and hopefully a bit of whale watching - nice. Maybe the car we'll be picking up will fill the void left by Vinno.

This blog entry has been brought to you by the letters V, C and W, and all of our adventuring is dedicated to the memory of my nan, Maureen Dewar who'll be missed loads.

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Photos

My precious!!
(The long days of driving had started to take a toll on Chris' youthful looks)