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I spent my “weekend” this week in a borrowed campervan from work for a famil. This just means that they wanted me to use one of the vans so that I can better tell customers how they work and why they are fabulous. I wanted to use the van because I was desperate to get out of Queenstown for a little while and having no car, a campervan was the best option.
They let me take one of the giant six person Mercedes van. M was the only other person who had the same days off as me this week so we decided that we would make this our great adventure. The first issue is that M doesn’t have a driver’s license which meant that I had to do all of the driving. To be honest, it was probably better that way because I would have been really nervous having someone else drive the van that I was responsible for. We took off on Monday afternoon with no real plans and with no map. Realizing that a map might come in handy, we stopped by my place to grab an atlas and headed south toward the coast. Our only plan was to find the beach. After several hours of driving, night had set in and we were on a dirt track with no cell phone service and decided that just pulling off to the side of the road and spending the night was the best course of action. That, in and of itself, is nothing new for me after my first campervan adventure in New Zealand last year but that was about the time that the things that I’ve never done before began.
We had bought a pizza for dinner because we thought that the van had an oven in it and neither of us had even bothered to check and make sure even when we were putting the groceries away. Guess what. No oven! Have you ever had a pan fried pizza? Its actually not that bad; but here is a tip in case you want to try it for yourself, put a top over the pan from the begining to steam the crust and melt the cheese on top. Never, under any circustances, flip the pizza over to try to cook the toppings. We drank bubbles while eating our pan fried pizza and enjoyed the first night of our trip.
At about 4am, we were awoken by the sound of repeated horn honking and my first thought was that someone had come down the dirt track and was trying to move us along because we probably shouldn’t have been free-camping there. M looked out the window and said “don’t worry its just cows.” And in my half asleep state I accepted that as something that was to be expected. The farm that we had parked next to was herding its cows by using the horn of his car. How modern.
The next morning, we woke up and realized that we had made it to the ocean and had been driving along side of it in the dark unable to see it for several kilometers before we decided to stop for the night. After making coffee and having, we kept driving in hopes of finding a turn off so that we could actually walk down to the beach. We turned into an old golf course in the middle of nowhere and left the van parked in the middle of the dirt road and climbed down to the deserted beach below. It looked just like a movie set with the rugged cliffs and the waves crashing on the sand and rocks. After only a few minutes, however, we realized that the tide was fast coming in and we would soon be cutoff from our escape route so we quickly headed back to the van to continue our adventure.
We made our way down more and more dirt tracks and eventually ended up in a place called Nugget Point where we went to check out and old lighthouse. On the way to the lighthouse down the side of a cliff about 200 feet below, I was convinced that I heard something yelling from in the waves. We stood there for ages expecting to see a drowning child before realizing that it was just a seal chilling on the rocks below. One the way back from Nugget Point, our van was surrounded by a herd of sheep coming down the road just like in those old movies. I was so excited that I stopped dead in the middle of the road and turned the engine off and waited for them all to go past. The little old farmer who was following behind them in his little red truck tipped his hat and blew us a kiss as he drove by.
Lunch was followed by a stop at a cafe for coffee and cake and to charge my phone which was completely pointless because we had no cell phone service anyway. The rest of the day was spent stopping at every touristy spot we could find including several waterfalls and a blowhole which didn’t blow. We also managed to dance in the Pacific for a little while but once the cold had made it where I couldn’t feel my feet anymore, it was time to head back to the van. Near Jack’s blowhole (the blowhole that didn’t blow. can you sense my irritation at that?) there was a sign for pickles for sale in front of a house. M and I went over to see the pickles and the family was having lunch inside and invited us in to sample all of the pickles (they weren’t actually pickles but more like a relish). Pickles were purchased and we acquired a map of the area and hit the road again heading toward Niagra Falls. I had no expectations that the New Zealand Niagra Falls would in any way resemble the North American Niagra Falls but I did expect it to at least be a waterfall. Think again. It was three or four big rocks in a small river and that was it!
Our next adventure was to Curio Bay to see the petrified forest and the penguins and then we settled into a dinner of fish and chips bought with the few coins that we were able to scrounge up because the stand didn’t have a credit card machine. Dinner in the van also included us watching the Curious Case of Benjamin Button and a bottle of red wine. Doesn’t this sound like the best way to camp ever?!? No wonder these people pay so much to rent these camper vans. It is like being in a 4 star resort on wheels.
We managed to make it through the night without being woken up by a herd of cows and headed toward Invercargill with the intent of going to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D only to realize after waiting for over two hours that it wasn’t even in 3D. Oh well, we had both already seen the movie anyway but it would have been nice to see Helena Bonham Carter’s giant head coming off the screen in 3D. We bought noodles in a box which M thought was the greatest thing ever because apparently the Chinese take aways in Scotland dont put the food in those little white boxes with the metal handles and headed back toward Queenstown stopping at a few more little tourist spots along the way.
Did I mention that we did all of this in our pajamas? You should have see the look on half of the peoples faces!
Your made your trip sound exciting. Very daring as well wearing only your pj’s.