Bonus entry: Cruizin' in the Jucy

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As we have had a few requests for pictures of the Jucy Cruiza camper van we are calling home for these three weeks and we have now reached over 1500 km (actually over 1700 - today was a long drive) we thought it was about time we gave more of an update on the Jucy and driving overall.

When we first looked at the sat nav distances we did so with some trepidation. Over six hours driving on one day! Can't be done we thought. But then we had planned this itinerary and in it we had three such days. Don't worry, we thought, the van will be great, you'll see. And then we did see. Safe to say our first impressions were not good. But one week in and what we can say is that the Jucy is definitely a grower. While it may have the acceleration of a geriatric rhinoceros and a fuel gauge that flips up and down like a Geiger counter beside a uranium yo yo (which we found to our detriment when we nearly ran out of gas coming into Te Anau) it certainly has some heart. It has got us round most of the South Island (touch wood) with no problems, not seeming to show any of its 298000 miles on the clock. If it can get us another two thousand or so miles we will be as pleased as punch and we will be willing to forgive its little foibles. Even if that includes an incapacity to get over 100 kph (60 mph) no matter how hard you floor the accelerator. Lucky for us that is the speed limit over here.

So for driving itself in NZ? A lot easier than the UK in some ways: roads are freer, good signage, only one route; but also worse in that the roads are a little more wiggly (Loz suggests this is only on her stints in the driving seat though) and longer between towns. And we do think if we come across one more one-way bridge it will be too soon. They would create havoc in the UK.

At least the road signs are comical though. Quite often you will have a 100 kph national speed limit sign right next to a 35 kph sign for going round a bend. Planning or what? And then every few miles you get a fire risk swingometer (we have only seen one pointing to high risk thankfully) which make you drive even faster. The best ones though are the health and safety messages. One saying DRINK DIE. (When you get closer you can see a small r between the D and the I and a small v between the I and the E) and another saying the faster you go the bigger the mess. This sort of illustrates the NZ approach which is a little more in your face than the UK. There was a sign we saw in Christchurch on the rubbish bins saying “Don't be a tosser”...well I'll try not to be... The best show of their humour though was on a news programme we saw a brief glimpse of. They were talking about Prince William's visit and were doing an article on the top three royals they do not want to visit. Two and three on the list were something like Prince Albert (he of the dodgy piercing, not Victoria's husband) and Richard III so we thought maybe number one would be William the Conqueror or Henry VIII or some other historical tyrant. Well, no it was actually Prince Phillip! Given the queen is actually their monarch too we had to laugh. All because he lets a few insulting comments out. You'd have thought he would have been liked by New Zealanders given his directness.

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