Currently sitting in the van, having a cup of tea, outside a service station in Hanmer Springs. Neville the AA man is busy repairing one of the bars that holds up our water tank, nice chap, handy to have around. And we got off lightly, here's why…
This morning woke up in Paketa Beach campsite - nice place, just south of Kaikoura. Right on the beach, but neither of us was up for a swim last night, and it was hard to raise a sleepy Jen from her pit this morning!! I must have been asleep too, because whilst backing the van up to dump the tanks, I managed to run over a concrete or sand filled plastic pipe intended as a barrier to stop people like me running into the dump tank stuff. Couldn't go forward, it caught under the chassis, so had to back up completely over it. Didn't seem to be any obvious damage, and a handy Brit chap (Mike with partner Carol, here for two months) gave me a hand to straighten the pipe! A nearby Kiwi made crowing noises - "Jeez, myte, thit's filled with concrit and stil, you'll be bound to have din some dimige!!", but nary a mark, not even on the bumper, first recipient of the blow. Nice Brit guy and lady though. We finally left about 9.30, and headed up towards Hanmer Springs.
Great drive up to here, a fantastic lodge place on the way, Mount Lyford Lodge, the largest log cabin in NZ apparently. Smells great, lovely view, great coffee and good cakes. Our Brit friends from the camp arrived, and we chatted more - did I say they are here for 2 months? Bastards! Also met George and his wife from Saskatoon, in NZ for 3 months every year, to escape the -30 temps currently in play there. He's a semi-retired electrical engineer, works up in the North lots to repair all sorts of heavy-duty electrical stuff. Lovely people, but don't let your donkeys near George if you want to prevent auto-amputation!
Hey, nearly at Hanmer Springs!! We're debating the choice of campground, when there's a clunk-rattle-rattle-rattle under the van, which doesn't stop, so I pull over, and look underneath. One of the bolts holding the tank support bar has had the nuts sheared off the end! We can't really proceed until it's at least lifted so it's not scraping on the road… Jen finds the clothesline, which is wire, a great choice of emergency support material, and with the help of the trusty Leatherman I managed to strap it up, wrapping aluminium foil and sticking plaster around the second bolt, also dragging on the road. The water tank has also dropped a bit, which is a worry, because it could well fall out! A biker mob thunders past - no offer of help there then...
We drive slowly into town - it's incredibly hot, and I'm very conscious of the possibility of losing the tank, a much more serious problem. We can't find the selected campground, so pull over and call them and also Gateway. "Just go to the garage and ask, or call 0800-AAHELP". We do both, with an hour's wait indicated. Jen's just getting the kettle on when Neville the AA man rolls up - no yellow van, only a pretty standard 4X4 ute kind of vehicle, and a black Caltex-logoed polo and green shorts of astonishing shortness and black chukka boots. He's come to sort the Maui Sprinter camper whose central locking doesn't… which he does in short order. then starts on us. Simple fix - moves the second (middle) of the three bolts, which I'd saved with the tape, to the end, jacks up the tank, bolts it up and bingo. Nice result. Thanks mate!! Now to find the campsite - she said head for the golf course...
***Some time later***
Nice campsite, pity the operator comes across like we're disturbing her Sunday! Lots of signs around too, very holiday/death camp. And I'm not sure if bumping into Mike and Carol yet again, although probably useful if I manage to drive over something again is that brilliant, but hey, they're friendly enough. Hanmer Springs is a thermal springs area, the largest in the S Island, and the spa sounds great. The camp is only 5 minutes walk from the centre of town and the spa centre, so we bag up the swimmies and go for it.
Now I've never tried a winter hot tubbing session, in fact, never even a hot tub, but this is a great feeling! The centre is like a well-sorted communal baths, with pools of various temperatures and content, from 28 straight to 41 done, with lots of trees and cunning landscaping to make the pools seem far less close and more private. Sitting up to my neck in bathtub temperature water, head cooled by gentle breezes, outside in the shade but with lots of sun around, just relaxing, is indeed a Great Feeling! Lots of different nationalities here, think I detected Japanese (not hard, usually found in hottest pools), Chinese, Brits, Swiss, Seth Efrican, Israeli, Indian, French, Aussies and even some NZers. Cool convenient electronic gear lockers too, work like the safes in hotel rooms where you enter your own PIN and rent for 2 hours.
It's really hot in Hanmer today, forget the thermal pools. A guy sat beside me waiting for his lady to emerge from the changing rooms, who comes here a fair bit, says it's the surrounding mountains which form a bowl, trapping it in. Apparently it gets down to -10 in the winter sometimes, and I'd really like to try a thermal pool then! The contrast would be spectacular.
We get back "home", for such it feels like, cook some rice and broccoli to go with the remainder of the smoked chicken, drink wine, and chat to Mike and Carol who are parked next door - of course! Probably fated to bump into them from now on, except with their extra time (bastards!) they'll be going further south than us and we'll be turning back soon enough.
Part of me wonders what the third thing was, that broke or whatever, as per the frequently tripped-out "happens in threes" fairy tale? I'm (re-?)learning a lot about coping with what is and what isn't on this trip. Do you know, I don't give a toss about the "third thing"? And I'm trying to lose the habit of thinking about what could have happened, but didn't. Ah, there's nothing like a good holiday - hell, one chap here has cycled his way down from Picton, riding an average 10km/hour, apparently lots of Johnsons Baby Powder and Baby Lotion is the secret, along with starting each hill in the gear you mean to go up in, rather than attacking it in the highest you can handle…
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