Meeting the locals.

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After a brief stop in Hawkes Bay we set off north for Gisborne, then stopped and turned the campervan around and decided to go south to the Wellington area.

About 100km into our journey the exhaust popped and the campervan suddenly sounded like a tank......

We pulled off the road into a village called Otane and stopped at what looked to be the only bar in town to use the phone. Following our chat with the rental people we turned around to be confrunted with all four locals who intruduced themselves, had heard we were in trouble with our Van( not hard really, i imagine they heard us from a way off) and before we even had time to tell them our names were invited to stay at their house for the evening. In her words"you're safe as here".

We sat down for a few drinks with them and met Beryl, Kate and Chunk (yes, that really is his name). Chunk is a 60+ cray-fisherman, formerly rodeo rider in the States....and despite them being drunk and stoned we decided to stay the night and leave early in the morning....

we had a few more drinks back at their place, a great house in the middle of nowhere. The whole experience turned out to be a great part of our little adventure and they are fantastic people....

You may be thinking that we were a little foolish to stay with complete strangers; but they are wonderful people. In Beryl's loo are the words, "There are no strangers in the world, just friends you haven't met yet", and that sums them up completely.

Pierre turned down the opportunity to go fishing with Chunk - it was at 3.30 in the morning though, and after the whiskey he'd been plied with the night before, we can't blame him....

After Breakfast with Beryl we set off in our tank to Palmeston North to get it fixed....Ian the mechanic patched up the exhaust and we set off on the open road once more...

Pierre finally provided food for me last night with some clams from the beach...still no fish (yet....).

Currently free camping on a beach just north of Wellington and have the ferry to the South Island booked for 0800 tomorrow morning....hope the camper takes us around there without trouble....Although it might give us more opportunity to get drunk with strangers.

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Comments

[Angela, Jon & boys]

What an adventure
Well New Zealand sounds wonderful, have a great time and keep fishing! Much love from the Normans

[Steve]

Crazy
Crazy kids, but Beryl is right about the stranger being friends. Pierre don't tell your mum about jumping out of perfectly good planes with wings and wheels still attached, I never did.

[mum]

The pictures of NZ are fab but for no money in this world would I have jumped out of a plane or look down in the elevator. I will send the address for our villa in spain next time as dad is about to come upstairs Love to both of you and look afTer yourselves the next lot of strangers might not be as nice. Don't put this on your comments so dad can't read it Love mum