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Published: January 23rd 2007
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Frog Prince
Jude takes her passion for frogs a bit too far... After packing up the last of our belongings, we headed down to the Escape office nice and early. Our new friend Michelle was ready and waiting for us with our van all nice and shiny and clean. We did the obligatory paperwork and were then really touched to find that Michelle had made us a couple of CDs of bands she thought we might like. One of them, Midnight Oil, I've heard of (an Aussie band from the early 90s) and the other one was new to us both. Blue October are a current Kiwi rock band who have recently had a big 'hit' (I hate that word!) with a song called Hate Me. Our van had a CD player so it'll be cool to have some music to listen to when we lose the radio signal. Michelle even went so far as to write down all the frequencies for The Rock radio station for different areas of South Island - how's that for personal service?!
We spent so long chatting to Michelle that we were late getting back to the hostel for checking out of our room but thankfully it wasn't a problem. We made our reservation for when
Escape
It does exactly what is says it does! we return to Christchurch at the end of our campervan travels and then went straight round to Pack'n'Save to get our month's supply of groceries.
With the van fully loaded, we were ready for adventure. We decided not to venture too far a field for our first night which we spent on the Banks Peninsular, a land mass made up of two volcanoes rising out of the water. Our route took us along some twisty roads which rose and fell like a rollercoaster and which led us at times so high that we were completely enshrouded by the clouds. It was like someone had thrown a giant fluffy duvet over us! We stopped briefly in an overly touristy town called Akaroa and decided to return tomorrow for a proper look around as campervans aren't permitted in the town overnight.
Further down the road we hit a dead end in terms of finding anywhere suitable to park up so we backtracked slightly and took a chance by driving down a lonely little road onto a small peninsular towards Takamatua Bay that we would never have found without the help of our KiwiMaps map book. At the end of the
First Stop
Our first overnight location by the water. Shame it isn't sunnier but at least it's dry - for now! road we found a small carpark right next to the water and we could see mounatins lurking over the other side of the water although they were largely obscured by the same low cloud that we had driven through on the way onto the volcanoes. It was a beautiful setting and we just couldn't believe our luck. We made ourselves some dinner and got ready to enjoy our first night in the van.
Just then, a local lady stopped by the car park to drop off her rubbish (there was a collection point at one end of the carpark) and began chatting to us. At first I was worried that we were parked somewhere we shouldn't be but when she mentioned other campers who had stayed in the smae carpark the previous night, we relaxed again. Heather was incredibly friendly and we were soon engrossed in a good old chat about all manner of things. Then her phone rang and before we knew it, she'd told her daughter who was on the other end of the line, to come down and join us. Lisa turned up just a couple of minutes later and we compared stories about life in
Dinner for Two
Pasta and beer - camping doesn't get better than this! England as Lisa had spent almost 3 years there but the prospect of another winter had made her come back to New Zealand!
Heather then suggested she showed us around the local area and so we joined her for a walk up the steep slopes to where new houses were being built. The whole area is actually full of holiday homes and when we arrived at Heather's place, she invited us up for a cuppa and to meet the rest of the family. The house was absolutely lovely - open plan with a warm retro feel t it. In the middle of the lounge was a wood burner churning out a tropical heat that instantly took the chill off us both. We settled into the sofa, drank tea and hot blackcurrant and were force-fed fudge (it was a horrific ordeal, let me tell you) while we compared travel stories with the family. We were joined by Kevin, Heather's husband and their son Hayden (hope I spelt it correctly!), who was busy watching Lethal Weapon on the TV but still seemed just as friendly as the rest of the family.
Before we knew it, it was gone 10pm and
Cool Kiwis
We met the best family on our first evening: (l-r) Glynn, Jude, Lisa, Heather and Kevin :-) the sky was pitch black outside. We had no idea how to get back to the van so we borrowed a tiny candle lantern to help us find our way. I felt just like Florence Nightingale, dangling that wee thing in front of me! We found our way with no trouble at all but trying to make up the bed in the dark was another matter entirely! Hats off to Glynn though because he took charge and within half an hour, we were curled up snug as a bug ready for our first night in the van. If this first day is the sign of things to come, then we're going to be have a great time on our South Island road trip. Bring it on!
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