Tomandamanda's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
Leaving New Zealand, in a whirlwind
Entry 28 of 68 | show all | print this entry |
So, we left Seddon with plans of a finale' trip in NZ. They went to shit. We spent most of our first day in Blenheim tying up the loose ends of life that always seem to fray out when you stay in one place too long. While tying up the last end up in Linkwater.. i.e. picking up our stove from Chris who neglected to give it back, we got some news that the west coast was gonna get some really nasty weather the next day. Soooo, we bagged the idea of heading off to Karamea, and headed south, initially for Mt. Cook. Because, how can you come to NZ, spend 4 months on the south island, and not see it's tallest peak.... well, like this.
We got to a small town just north of Christchurch called Cheviot, and had our last night, unbeknownst to us, in our van. A beauty of a spot, on a beauty of a coast. As much as the West Coast is regailed in NZ, I think I am more in love with the East Coast from Seddon down to Christchurch. It is just magical, there is much less rain, and NO SANDFLIES. Not to mention tons of fish, and crays, and paua. We loved it there .. its why we stayed so long with the Judges. Anywhoo, we headed into Christchurch the next day, after waking up and seeing the overcast day, and knowing that Cook was going to be covered in clouds. We had decided, it was time to leave the island, the country in fact.
At first the prospects of selling our van quickly seemed bleak, and after a rough first day of looking around, we met Tim Judge, and his buddy DB for a beer at the Twisted Hop. That beer turned into a crawl around the city tasting some of the better wine bars around, as well as a pit stop back at Tim's place for a decanting lesson and some "volcano" pizza. Afterwards, we headed back to Le Plonk, where Amanda made good friends with the owner, who proceeded to buy us whatever we liked. Amanda was very grateful, and so, after a few more glasses of her new favorite, decided to take to the curbside telling the rest of the city how great this wine bar was. The owner loved it, as did I, and Tim kept looking for an escape route. Good times.
Morning after, Amanda was not quite so... enthusiastic. I called Tim to go grab some brunch after getting out of our hotel, and Amanda took the ride over to Tim's in the back of the van, laying on our bed. She couldn't make it out of the apartment for most of the day, but Tim and I had some wonderful coffee, and a sampling of cheeses at the Canturbury Cheesemongers, and then headed over to Underground Coffee for some more coffee and something to nibble. The rest of the day was moping around, nursing our hangovers, and Tim trying to decide if he was off for Clarence today, or if we were all going out for Steak Frites and Belgian Beer. Eventually, he did head off, and left us with his house for as long as we wanted to stay. THANKS AGAIN TIM!!!
Sunday, we went to the Addington Car Fair, not wanting to sell the van at the Backpacker's Car Market which gave us a royal one, up the you know where, back in Auckland where we bought it. It ran from 9-12, though we didn't have a soul enquire about till about quarter to twelve. The ones who did, Danielle and Todd, from Canada and the US, we ended up giving a ride back to the city. We were hopeful, but everything had to work our just right. The only flight we could take till next week was Tuesday. We rented a cell phone, posted ads at all the hostels in town, and waited. and waited.. and waited.
WHY DID WE BUY THIS PHONE!?>!?!
I am pretty sure it was uglier than that when we realized we had missed a call after a long time of none. It was late on Monday, and we had nobody interested. We were back at Tim's place, admitting defeat, making plans to leave the city when.. Todd called. They wanted to the van inspected!! But our flight out was early in morning, it wasn't going to work well for us, but I told him of course anyways. After I hung up, we checked again and there was a four o'clock flight, we might still be able to make it. But we had no way to contact them, we were still waiting on a call.
The next morning, they called just as we were driving in to town. We picked them up, after rushing them out of bed I believe, and got the inspection done while we had some coffee and breakfast. All was good with the van, they wanted it, and all the sudden, we had no van, and were $1900NZ richer. We rushed and got our tickets changed, got our tax forms mailed off, returned the cell phone, got our bags, bought some cheese and bread, grabbed a taxi and arrived at the airport, right on time.
We were in the air two hours later, feeling jet lag already, when we thought, hey, this flight goes to Brisbane, and then on to Sydney. But we want to travel up north anyways, so let's stay in Brisbane.
So.. we did.
P.S.- I'm not that sorry about missing Cook really, we had a great time on the other side of the southern alps.
Latest Comments (2)
|
YO DUDES!!!!!! (reply)
Mar 3, 2008 14:37 EST by travelbrother20
HEY whats up guys, how are you. Sounds and looks like your trip is awesome. so your finally in aussieland...thats sweeeet. Im still in New Jersey, but someones gotta do it. I recently took my placement test for Brookdale and once again going on with the JCP&L program....Im so excited to finally have a career and go to school Ill be in Cali in no time. Well I just wanted to let you know still think... show all
|
|
|
superbowl giants! (reply)
Mar 2, 2008 22:56 EST by ckiesche
Thanks for the postcard! how cool was that superbowl win?!unbelieveable good times! definitely looking forward to summertime poolside...enjoy your times over seas...it all changes so quickly. we think of you often...smiles and love always,
the Kiesche family
Mike, Carolyn, Madalyn, and Louis :)
|
 Post a new comment |
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by tomandamanda, from Australia or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
4 votes 
