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Published: March 9th 2008
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Hey everyone,
Thanks for your comments and messages. It's so nice to hear from you guys and that all is well.
Well, for this blog we have numerous highlights including failing our WOF (MOT) and being eaten alive by sandflies and mossies!
Making our way up from Milford Sound (thank you mother for your ingenious pearls of wisdom!) seemed to be done with triple the rapidity of getting down the East coast! This was mostly because of blood sucking insects invading Big Blue every night to feed on our innocent bodies! We took in a few highlights on the way back up, such as Haast Pass, a river gorge cutting through the Southern Alps. It began to feel like we were never going to get through when we came to a sign which said 'The Gates Of Haast'. It sounded pretty awesome so we were slightly dissapointed when it turned out to be... a bridge.
On to Fox Glacier which is very close to the village of Fox and so it is very easy to go and have a look. It was rather amazing actually. It had the look of rock but glistened so you could see that
it was ice and had a kind of blue hue to it a bit further up. It's crazy how quickly it could flow if conditions were right. Although, it has been receeding for the past 8 years.
A couple of days after we visited some numpty German tourist was photographed tagging it with his spray can. He was tracked down and made to scrub it off after some helpful tourists gave the picture to the police. Next, perhaps he could try tagging the Taj Mahal- dumb ass!!
We had the delight of visiting the Marlborough region, famous for it's exquisite wines. Although after one glass you can't really taste the difference between them. But we didnt let that stop us, oh no! We had great fun pretending what we could taste in them (except Collette's comment was generally 'mmmm... mango... nice' and then nothing later on). It was excellent having Big Blue, after numerous tasting sessions we had a lovely kip :-)
We headed up to Nelson where we had to get the WOF done. There was a rather important affliction that BB had been hiding from us - loads of rust. We were told to take her
to a panel beaters and after being told she basically had to have the front re-built to the tune of $800, we were quite disheartened. So, not wanting to be fleeced, we took it to other places to get a 2nd and 3rd opinion.
Our 3rd try was a bit of a gem! 2 retired old dudes who took pity on us and did a patching up job for $400- excellent old dudes they were like Steptoe without the son! One of them was a particular character- he donned a black wollen vest throught the 3 days of intense NZ Summer heat. He was skinny as and sounded like he'd smoked about a million cigarettes. He reminded us of a gyppo from Yorkshire. His favourite terms were ' The wife's gone ape-shit' he described every repair job as 'a peice o' piss'.
Our van's got a habit of running on when you turn off the ignition. When he drove it into garage, switched it off and it carried on spluttering he cried " Whoa ya bitch!'' and moved like he was riding in the rodeo.
He even took the van to the place where it had been WOF'd
Nice Shirt
" Taste's like the Dog's Darlin!" "I know the buggers, they'll pass it don't you worry, piece o piss". John was fairly relieved he didn't have to go along and witness that one.
Last stop on South Island was an amazing backpackers called 'Hopewell' on Kenepura Sound. We had to take a boat out to it, it was like a retreat rather than a b-packers. Very laid back and the facilities were well plush. They had a huge table in the garden which they covered with newspaper in the evening and cooked up massive amounts of local Mussels for everyone staying there. They just dished out mounds of these Mussels onto the table for us to dig into. They had a fishing boat and kayaks which we took out across the sound. We collected Oysters, and Mussels just off the beach and ate them with freshly baked bread, all very nice after roughing it for a month.
Leaving Hopewell, we caught the Saturday evening ferry from Picton and arrived in Wellington with enough time for a few bevvies in what is certainly the liveliest nightlife we have experienced here. It was like going out in a northern city in the U.K with the lasses
all dolled up in their little dresses and high heels and lads tensing up in their shirts. Bit of a shock to see such a crowd after the South Island!
We have started working for a few weeks apple picking for Phil and Kirsty ( thanks for the contact Lou, you were fondly remebered as the one who did all the work while Andy re-built the van!!) on their orchard.
We'll let you know how we hold up in a couple of weeks!
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lou
non-member comment
apples,,, apples,,, crisp juicy apples
Hiya! Glad you got some work sorted. I soo pleased you got on the orchard!!!! say a big Hi to everyone there from me and Andy. You can let them know things havent changed much and Andy has now bought a cavalier and is converting it to run it on Veg oil!!! oh ma god...i m not asking any questions. Mum is very knowledgable on fjords! I think she went on Wikipedia;) You both look really healthy and Happy xxx