Mocksford to Melaka
Trip Start
Feb 11, 2008
1
51
58
Trip End
Jun 30, 2008
Christchurch,
New Zealand
Monday, May 26, 2008
However, Christchurch is not really an accurate representation of England (despite the excellent historical architecture) and has been dubbed "Mocksford" by the cynics (myself included) due to the strong Kiwi feel to the place, which in itself lends another layer of interest to the city
Rugby Crusaders vs Hurricanes
.I really did like Christchurch, and we managed to find our way around very easily, due to the streets being laid out in blocks so you can't really get lost! It was nice to walk amongst the arboreal giants in the park (especially the beautiful specimens of beech trees) and kick our way through drifts of autumn leaves- something we enjoyed doing only 6 months ago in the UK when we were also freezing our proverbials off at home. It was weird to be back in Autumn/Winter after only a short time since our last experience of crappy weather at home and knowing that in England it is early summer and the trees are in leaf, the daff's have come and gone and the countryside is athrong with bleating, frollocking lambs! Sentimental old bugger that I am!
Anyway, we had seven days in Christchurch during which we tried to sell our trusty Tilly to another adventurous traveller who would take her on another tour of the islands (she practically knows her own way around by now) and we tried every trick in the book to sell her, including printing coloured photos and notices detailing her merits and walking around the streets of the city distributing them to the many backpacker hostels in the city. We also posted information about her on several websites, bnut as we did not have a mobile phone with us, we discovered after a few days that potential sellers were finding it difficult getting back to us
Knights on horses (Mascot for Crusaders)
! You live and learn! However, after we forked out more cash in getting the rear brakes replaced so we could get the van through its warrant of fitness (a bit like an MOT, only they don't really bother too much as long as the vehicle goes forward, stops, has working lights, windscreen wipers and the doors open and close) and tarting her up, we still had no response to our efforts in advertising her! Therefore, we decidied to enjoy our time in Mocksford and as well as exploring the delights of the city we went to watch the semi final match of the Super 14 rugby tournament at the local teams stadium in Christchurch the Crusaders, who were playing the Wellington team called the Hurricanes,whom I was rooting for, although Jo wanted the local lads to win, for some reason! The match was great and the weather was kind so we both enjoyed waving our respective flags each time our chosen team scored a try, penalty, conversion or a dirty foul! The local team won and the Hurricanes let me down terribly with bad play in the second half , still, we had a great time, especially when I insisted that we leave before the end of the match as the Hurricanes were getting stuffed and Jo refused to leave as she wanted to see the fireworks at the end of the match when the local heroes patted themselves on their backs. It was at this point when the highlight of the game took place and a male (unfortunately) streaker ran from the opposition goal end wearing just a pair of socks and his knickers and legged it across the pitch towards the line up taking place in the home teams area
Tony at the rugby Crusaders vs Hurricanes
! His appearance caused embarassed officials to run after him and caused the crowd to rise to their feet and shout their encouragement to the crazy son of a bitch who was being pursued by burly security guards intent on rugby tackling him to the ground and laying into him. He was finally halted in his mad hysterical dash by one of the Crusaders substitutes and frog marched off the pitch to appreciative cat calls, cheers and applause from the crowd. Of course, I completey forgot to take a photo of this spectacle, but it cheered me up no end!! On Sunday morning we recieved an email expressing interest in Tilly, so we hurriedly packed her away, tidied her up, put on our best smiles and drove into town to meet our hopeful purchasers. After showing them around our pride and joy and explaining the many attributes of our home on wheels we were still unable to convince the German couple that THIS was the van they had been looking for!
" But, she is very old" pointed out the young lady in a thick German accent.
"Yes" I gently explained to her. " She may be 23 years old, but she has been very well loooked after, loved and cared for and she will take you anywhere you would like to go and not let you down" I crossed my fingers whilst saying this to prevent my soul being banished to the lowest levels of hell. The German couple offered us $1000NZ, at which we firstly stiffled a laugh and then turned down their measly offer (despite wanting to leave NZ and head off to warmer climbs asap!)
Seeing as we were not getting anywhere with these guys we offered to take them to the Backpackers Car Market in town, a run down joint where backpackers can sell their clapped out peices of rust for over hiked prices to other backpackers, and seeing as we had already checked out this establishment and been amazed at the asking prices of some of these buckets of bolts, we hoped that an alternative look for our German buyers at what else was on the market may well be the incentive they required to part with their cash!It worked
Jo at the rugby Crusaders vs Hurricanes
! As soon as we gave them a guided tour of the vans on offer (expressing feigned surprise and tut tutting at the condition and the price of the afore mentioned vehicles) we left them to explore the "dark side" of the backpacker van buying experience on their own. Finally, they slowly walked back to where we were waiting, casually leaning against the side of the van as though we had all the time in the world -which of course we did as we were in no particular hurry to sell up, but we wanted to get a reasonable and fair price for her considering the her quality, despite her age!"Okay, ve vill offer you $1400" The Germans told us expectantly
We drew in a breath over our teeth, blew out our cheeks, rubbed our chins, looked sideways at each other, shrugged, tapped our feet, murmered to one another whilst casting looks at theGermans, and hesitantly agreed to let her go at $1400.
"On the condition" I said to them, brushing a tear from my left eye. "That you keep the name of Tilly for the van".
"She was named after his grandmother," Jo explained as I sniffed and turned my head away to hide my pain at parting with our beloved home. What theatrics! What a team!
No sooner had we sold her to the German couple, we drove back to the backpackers where the new owners of Tilly were staying so that they could give us the readies. Things didn't go quite as smoothly as we had hoped though as the Germans wanted us to show them again how the seats in the van folded down to make the bed, how the awning was put up and all the other little bits of information we could provide them with
Flight from Christchurch to Singapore
. It was while I was "excitiedly" showing them again how to turn the passenger seats around and lay out the bed that I noticed a particularly foul smell eminating from the floor of the van and on inspection I was horrified to find I had inadvertantly stepped into the runniest, smelliest, most disgusting piece of cat shite in the world and walked it onto the rug placed on the floor of the van- what's the bloody chances!! I hadn't even seen a bloody cat anywhere, but yes, here was it's excrement caking the sole of my shoe and now pasted across the floor of the very vehicle I was trying to get rid of! Naturally, the German couple were somewhat put out as I explained what had happened, threatened to murder the bloody cat and jokingly asked them what cat shit is in German whilst trying to find the funny side of the experience. I think it might have ben "catten shitten" but I'm not quite sure what they said when they replied with stoney expressions on their faces. Jo came to the rescue and offered to show them every item in the storage boxes, including getting out the tins of soup and beans for them to look at whilst I hastily cleaned up the van, changed my shoes for a pair of trainers, washed the carpet with cleaning fluid and hastily threw away the soiled rug into the bin. When Jo had exhausted the contents of the boxes she moved on to showing them the contents of the cutlery box, as well as trying to explain to the non English speaking German where they should travel in New Zealand and pointing out the name places in the road atlas and getting a response of " Ya, Ya" from the nervously smiling guy, we managed to run through the last items of sale and get our hands on the cash
Flight from Christchurch to Singapore .2
! However, when the German girl realised that I had thrown the rug away, she was very upset and explained that she had really liked it. I almost guiltily handed back $20 in compensation until Jo stepped in and explained tha we had only paid $12 for the rug at Warehouse, a budget superstore, and that they could easily and cheaply replace it. While she was talking, I tucked the cash away, grabbed our bags and slowly edged away from them toward the roadside.We stayed that night in a cracking little backpackers hostel called (imaginatively) Chester Street Backpackers, on (yes you've guessed it) Chester Street. It was built in the 19th Century and was very quaint and comfortable, with a double bed and everything!! We were just delighted to be able to go for a wazz in the night without having to put every item of clothing on, including our boots, walk across a freezing campsite to sit on a cold toilet seat in the middle of the night! That evening, once we'd enjoyed the thrill of being able to have so much space to ourselves, we telephoned Qantas and changed our flights from June 17th to the following day, so at 12.30pm the next day we were at Chrischurch airport waiting to board a plane for a flight to Sydney and then on to Singapore where we planned to spend one night in a hotel near to the airport and then on Wednesday, bugger off back to Melaka where we had arranged to stay at Number Twenty for a couple of nights.
