Scott blogs in a tent!

So, hands up if you knew that driving an automatic in “drive” down the highest road in the country would cause your brakes to emit plumes of smoke.

You may note there is no picture here of us with our hands up.

But we met a nice A.A. man who explained the rough points of this to us and assured me (Scott) that our car wasn’t about to catch fire and explode.

That was quiet a good part of the trip today after a particularly bad part.

So, back to the start of the day.

We awoke a little sore from a night on a deflated air mattress, but actually pretty well rested and super snugly, considering we could see snow from our little camp site in Franz Joseph.

We had “glaciered” the day before, (had I mentioned that?) and stuffed our self’s on Indian food then rugged up and hit the snoozy train.

So today we set of for Wanaka.

3 and a half hours used to seem like forever in a car, we are adapting quiet well.
We broke up the trip by visiting a salmon farm and feeding some EPICLY big fish!I felt a bit bad knowing they were destined for someones tummy, but consoled my self thinking that they had the best life a fish could have!
Off again in the direction of Wanaka.

Once there we had a look around for some accommodation, but it turns out the dire warning of our nice motel lady in Nelson had come to be true… the west coast was booked up.

Feeling a little hesitant about this Ruthy set my mind at easy by suggesting we “do Wanaka” properly and visit “puzzling world.”

It was, and I use this phrase with joy, RAD!

We mazed, laughed at the taunts to psychics, stared at holograms and plummeted headlong into tilted rooms… sweet!

With the MADNESS concluded, we sat in the car and munched down some tasty sammies we had built, before plugging Lee back in and setting our sites on Queenstown.

A world of driving (Captain Ruth at the helm,) and we were there.
Queenstown is simultaneously the apex and anus of the south.
It is a wonderful place to behold (and get stranded out side of waiting for the AA man,) and everything is rather well maintained… but… its full of very stupid rich, drunk people. Especially right now.

We bought some fish and chips and mussels and sat by the lake eating them and watching people get drunk by liquor ban signs, some one then stole my water bottle from right beside me.

With no chance of accommodation here either we once again turned to Lee and picked yet another destination. This time Scott called ahead for fear we spend all night on the road. “we are just leaving Queenstown now” …”Why?” Was the reply

We are currently typing away inside our tent in our second “top ten” holiday parks (that’s their name)
This time its in Invercargill.

That’s right. Invercargill

Today we crossed over ½ the south island.
We are truly heroes.

Bet your missing us already.

Hitting The Road

Well, to settle the argument as to how long it takes to travel from Hamilton to Welly, the answer is “a jolly long time!”
Well, to be fair, not that long really. The two of us taking turns got us safe and sound to our hotel in around seven and a half hours, and there is nothing like sitting on your but for the lions share of a day to really wear you out!

Denizens of the road beware, Scott has the wheel

We had a damn nice jaunt on the roads, smooth sailing through every season and what seamed like a million different environments, with the desert road being particularly alien and pretty.

Speaking of alien things, we just had to check out the local UFO once we got to our landing zone!

All checked in and driven by grumbling bellies we took to the streets to see what we could find to sustain us.
Footing it about failed to yield any results, mostly due to it being Boxing Day and every one pouring out of the capital for beechier locations.
So we instead popped back to our little hotel room and dialled up some room service, in the mean time we made our selves right at home.

the room, the food, the joy

And that was that… May not sound like much but it took a lot out of s both.
We are now reclining on the hotel bed, watching Wallace and gromit on the tube, plotting tomorrow’s endeavours.

And that’s the first update from on the road I guess… Scott and Ruth have indeed started to head south.

Peace!

Camp Practice

 

our campsite, front and back

So, our next big adventure begins with a little warm up.
In the heart of deepest darkest Thames, your intrepid heroes find themselves ready to practice being able to survive in the (fairly tame) wilds.

Armed with our little tent and tins of beans we set to work claiming our space and making ready our nook. 

(fun fact about our campsite, just beyond the trees on the left of the second picture up there, there is a river, it makes awesome natureish noises all night long... and also brings midges to keep us company all-the-live-long-day.)

  

  

A magic pixie floats into view as the tent magically self assembles

SHELTER!
Our ancient ancestors would be so proud! Especially as we then wrangled another necessity into place... FIRE! 

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

What i should be telling you, (mostly to make you ridiculously jealous,) was we arrived here, in this bristling kiwi wonderland, under the most gorgeous sunny weather... It works wonders in the department of making you believe that you are actually on holiday, and that its fine to stretch you at put on your best "ahhhhhhh" (silly looking,) faces.

 

 

one of these things is not like the other

Okay, to be fair, we did have a minor dash of pesky weather, but it wasn't that bad.

In fact it was the looming grey appearing in the evening that forced us to break out the trusty cooker nice and early.
and with its little flames valiantly holding back the first little spits as they came down, it was about time we put together the we fritters we had long trained for in secret rituals passed down through the generations in forbidden locales.

 

 

behold our utter pride, (this must be how parents feel... before they eat their kids)

At that point, we feasted and congratulated our selves on surviving our first day of crazy travels past dangerous Christian camps (woo, there's a whole other story,) GPS treasure hunting and living like little townie pioneers. 
Time for some kip!

 

Looking out, looking in.

Aww man, I'm a most awful story teller.
I forgot to mention that we actually took a jaunt to "OUR" swimming hole!
The first time, (of two,) we went there, if you'd been present, you would have witnessed something like a vision of a little dancing wood nymph skipping from stone to stone to find her way to the goal. This sight was followed (a good pace back) by something like a giant having an avalanche like epileptic fit and falling from painful spot to more painful spot.

Never the less. We arrived... And it looked, well, I think our faces say it all.

 

 

Ahhhhhhhh! Cool and soothing!

So, yeah, where was I...

Oh right, the next day!
We clambered awkwardly from our tangled sleeping knots into the shiny light of a shiny day!

And what did we have in mind for this unique gem of a time.

'Sploring!
Well, hiking really.

Drawstrings were pulled tight, laces were strapped down, and packs were made ready.
And after some fine heroic posing, we found a mountain, and started on up.

 

Pack + Pose

Aaaaaaaaaaand, we didn't die!

Though at times i thought we may have.
Turns out 4 hours of going only UP, is not what we were build for.
Still, it felt majestic to stumble all the way up that incline and come face to face with a solid structure build in glorious nowhere.

I'm sorry to say we didn't click many pics on the way up, as it drizzled all the way, and, to be fair, we were scared to stop moving forward!

But, after landing at the top, (and making a sprint through the icy cold mountain shower,) I clicked one or two of our home for the night, and a friendly Sherpa that taught me Gin Rummy.

 

 

Home, sweet, home for the night

Oh my how we started to hurt the next day!

But there was nothing for it, we had gone UP, and an old adage dictated our destiny, and no matter how forlornly I looked at the helipad, no choppery saviour came from on high.

Sustaining ourselves with a yummy combo of porridge's, we said good by to some Aussie friends we had made, (who had a magic bag that held THE ENTIRE WORLD,) Shouldered our packs once more and began our downward tumble under cerulean blue skies!

 

By now posing was pretty much our forte

 

 

The path out of shangrala!

This sign very nearly recived kisses from me.

 

Infact when ever I was nearly dead, signs would appear, and I would bound on!

 

The tippy top! and the place we stayed!

And that was that!

We nearly died on the trip down, but knocked an hour of our time!
We promptly fell into the icy stream and tried to regain the use of our shattered limbs, And then our little tent tucked us up once more and we went out like a light.

So thats the first really real adventure post on this blog, and its miles to long.

AAAAAAAND I'm cutting it short because I have to get to bed, because tomorrow, well, thats when the next adventure begins.

So stay tuned listners, and sorry for the spelling.

Sweet dreams, and look out for grinning natives!

Dangerous sort!