We managed to capture my Address to the Sausages on video so that has become our video for New Zealand.
So JD is a Couchsurfer from Singapore who stayed with us not long after we signed up a few months before we leftthe UK. JD is also planning a visit to New Zealand and his research had turned up the site transfercar.co.nz. The idea is that vehicle hire companies who have a surplus of vehicles at one place put them up for a free one-way-hires to where they'd prefer them to be. Because most people one-way-hire from Auckland to Christchurch, there's a surplus of vehicles in Christchurch which gave us an advantage. A bit of internet too-ing and fro-ing later and we had our free car to drive from Christchurch Airport (where we dropped the van) to Auckland Airport (where we were to fly to Japan) – perfect!
I should also explain at this point that New Zealand has a very odd driving rule. If you're turning left at a junction, you give way to any cars turning right into the junction. This hadn't bothered me much driving the van as I usually just waited for stuff to happen and then go last. It came back to bite me at this point though. I was turning right crossing over the other lane of traffic. Because I'd only just started driving the car I wasn't confident about making it across quickly enough without being smashed to bits by the approaching traffic so I decided to wait rather than go despite the fact that there was a left turning car giving way to me. The next thing I knew there was a crunching noise and our car shook as a 4x4 driver decided to squeeze through the cap between us and the car behind, not quite making it. I saw him drive off as bits of the back of our car went bouncing onto the road. The back bumper was half-off so I tried to balance it back on before speaking to the woman in the car behind who'd managed to write down part of the 4x4 driver's number. Insurance is non-compulsory in New Zealand and it's likely that he/she wasn't insured so drove off to avoid having to pay for the damage to our car. This of course is an offence. I got the car through the junction and the bumper bounced off again, we put it back, it fell off again as soon as we moved. We stopped to evaluate our situation and just as luck would have it, a police car came round the corner. The policeman was a lovely chap, really sympathetic and took all the information I could give him about what had happened and he let us use his phone to ring the hire company. They said to stay put and wait for a pick-up so Charlotte headed to the hostel (which was just down the road) and I waited with the car. The policeman took the partial number-plate details from the lady behind and the woman in the car behind that (who caught up with us round the corner) and by the time he was heading off said that they had a likely positive ID on the car and would probably be paying the driver a visit. Eventually a pickup arrived to take me back to the depot and luckily (again) we'd paid for an excess reducer so there was only NZ$100 (~£50) to pay before I was given a new car and sent on my way. Gingerly, I drove it back to the hostel.
That evening we visited Sarah and Andy Masters. Sarah used to work with me at the University of Edinburgh and has just got a job at the University in Christchurch. She and Andy had arrived the week before while we'd been campervanning. We had a lovely evening with them and their two kids Imogen and Isabel (Isabel is only 6 months). That day Andy had been given a job and they'd just about gone through with buying their dream house. It's great that things have worked out so well for them.
We got up early the next morning and drove 5 h to Picton where the ferry goes to the North Island. It was a windy day but luckily the ferry journey was pretty smooth and we landed at Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Surprisingly we had little difficulty navigating our way to Síle, our Couchsurfer's house. She's originally from Ireland and lives at the top of one of Wellington's many steep roads with her flatmates James (from Cornwall), Emily (New Zealand), Amanda (New Zealand) and Janneke (New Zealand/The Netherlands). They had dinner ready for us (I love it when Couchsurfers do that!) so we tucked right in. Síle donated her room to us as it had a double bed and she slept in her flatmate's room as her flatmate had just moved out.
We headed into Wellington the next day by taking a route through a wooded area. While being not particularly architectuarily beautiful, we found that Wellington had a nice atmostphere and many nice wee shops. Cuba street was a highlight (and brought back some interesting memories of our Cuba experience) and we took a wander through the gorgeous Botanical Gardens before doing the free parliament tour. It's set-up and done-up quite similarly to the Westminster parliament but they've taken the rather odd step to getting rid of their Upper House. Instead, they have an extensive committee system which thrashes out the details of bills before they become law. The public can observe committee meetings and even take part should they wish to do so. The Kiwis were particularly proud to be one of the oldest democracies in the world as they were the first country to give women the vote.
Back at Síle's place we got in some fish and chips. It was now nearly 6 months since I'd had my last chip supper and I was having withdrawal symptoms. I'd even bought a can of mushy peas when we were still in the van for such an occasion. The New Zealand fish and chips were a pretty close imitation of the UK version apart from the fact that the chips were giant and you ordered them separately from the fish. We ended up with a massive feast which even included a few deep fried Mars Bars – so much like home! I finished the meal with a rendition of “Cholesterol”, it seemed appropriate. After dinner we went for a game of Crazy Golf. Golf and everything that goes with it usually brings me out in a rash but I generally say that Crazy Golf is the exception. This course was on a piece of land owned by a guy who makes sculptures out of scrap and you paid by putting money into an honesty box which was guarded by a slightly nervous looking chicken (I kid you not). Every time you tried to put money in the box it eyed you suspiciously and gave a slighly pathetic “buc” noise. Like the honest folk we were, we paid the chicken and had a hilarious round – especially when it became apparent how dreadful we all were. Our hosts decided to re-live their teenage years by singing a selection of hits of the 90s so we even had a musical accompaniment.
The Wellington flatmates waved us off rather sleepily the next morning and we spent most of the day driving to Rotorua. We did have one stop-off though which was particularly important to Charlotte (and one of the motives for making sure we had a car). A bunch to New Zealand scientists came up with the idea of building an equivalent to Stonehenge in New Zealand. It wasn't to be a replica but instead a working monument/sculpture/scientific piece of kit which they could use to follow the progress of the sun, moon and stars over the course of the year and maybe get some insight into why the original Stonehenge was built. The funny thing was that it was then adopted by a bunch of Neo-druids who said it was sacred and they had a right to worship there – bizarre! It was a really lovely place to be and we both loved the idea behind it. There was a great acoustic in the middle and I sang some bits of songs to demonstrate it.
It was a long drive to Rotorua (8 h) and I was dead by the end of it but we eventually arrived and found our hostel – all the Couchsurfers were fully booked by the time we were enquiring. Rotorua is a Geothermal area so we spent the next day wandering around some of the crazy bubbly bits (which are also pretty smelly) and drove round some of the countryside around the town. There was an amazing redwood forest which we took walk in. The Rotorua area was used as “The Shire” in Lord of the Rings and you can see why. It also has black swans which look pretty sinister and it was clear that there's been a lot of rain as the lake was overflowing onto the pavement around it.
Our last stop was Auckland. We left Rotorua early as we were due to meet a former postdoc of my dad's who still collaborates with him (albeit from the other side of the world). He and his wife have twin girls who are 3 years old. They were initially terrified of us (as all wee kids are) but warmed to us as the day went on. He was one of the most enthusiastic dads I've ever met. In fact, it was lovely to meet parents who have retained their enthusiasm for being parents despite the crazy times they had. We went on a family day out to the beach – Piha beach which is on the west coast of the island. It's a black sand beach which glistens with iron fillings in the sun and has a rock which looks like a lion. We had an amazing meal in the wee restaurant there while the girls covered themselves in chocolate ice-cream. Afterwards we had a walk on the beach and tried to teach the girls about avoiding jellyfish without giving them phobias. We weren't that successful and by the time we were leaving one of the girls had convinced herself that there were jellyfish at every step. She calmed down after a quick play in the play-park and Charlotte and I had a play as well. It seemed that the park was more designed for us rather than them. Back at the house we played some tunes for the girls who put their fingers in their ears. They'll get into it one day I suppose!
Our last full day in New Zealand was really chilled out. We drove to the beach next to Piha and sat on a rock, wondering if anyone else had spotted the naked sunbather hiding behind a rock across from us. Afterwards we dropped back to Piha so we could take a look at it in the sunshine as it had been pretty grey the day before. It was spectacular. Dinner was at "Burger Fuel" – New Zealand's home-grown burger place where we both had “Bastards” and ate our burgers out of “doofers” which were beautifully designed cardboard devices which prevented burger falling apart. Genius!
It was Charlotte's birthday when we headed to the airport which was a bit of a shame but we attempted a celebration in the airport at Auckland by having a meal in the pub there. It was actualy really good for an airport pub meal. It was then a short transit in Sydney before heading to the land of the rising sun and a totally new adventure. New Zealand is fab - gorgeous and so chilled out. I'd recommend it to anyone, even if you're a bit travel shy as the culture is very similar to the UK. It was particularly encouraging that the Kiwis lived up to their reputation - no worries mate!
Saturday, 5 February 2011
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