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Hello, You never know what life will bring;
we've certainly had our ups and downs in the first week of our trip! It
all started very well with 4 days based at Akaroa where the sun shone and the
view was fantastic. Akaroa is on the Banks Peninsular, named after Captain
Cook's navigator, and is the remains of an ancient volcano.
Consequently it is mountainous with sheer drops, very steep twisting roads
and surprise views around every corner. We spent our time
walking the hills and didn't want to leave but felt we should move on
otherwise we would regret what we missed, if you see what I
mean?
One chance meeting up in the mountains that might
interest sailing friends is worth recounting. High above the bay we came
across a guy felling large trees and cutting up the logs into small
pieces. We chatted for a while and then he said "If I wasn't doing this
I'd be out there sailing". It was Sunday and down below us we could see
the local Sailing Club getting ready to race. He was about 50 and it
turned out he had an Open 60 on the moorings and had sailed and raced all over
the world. He was currently negotiating the purchase of a lifting keel
seventy footer - "Nothing less than 20knots for me", he said, "I have to have a
boat that goes! " My little 29 footer seemed very insignificant after
that but on the contrary he said ocean sailing was easy compared with the
sailing I had done in the Irish Sea and was very encouraging in regard to
my Azores plans. At the end of conversation he said "If you get down the
hill quickly you'll get a sail" pointing his finger to the scene below
" they're always looking for crew, especially with experience". But
it was too late, never mind eh?
We had one or two initial problems with the
campervan but decided to put up with them while in Akaroa and go back to
Christchurch when we left the Peninsular. Just to give those of you who
may consider hiring a van an idea of the sort of things I mean: This was our
list
- The Picnic Table was broken
- One Picnic Chair was split
- As we drove into Akaroa there was water running
all over the floor of the van.
- There was no water coming from the tap even though
we could here the pump running.
- The water filler hose was too short to reach from
tap to van.
- One burner on the cooker was not working.
- My duvet didn't smell too good, I leave to
you to work out for yourselves what it smelt of!!
The water over the floor and the water pump were a
combination of two things. Firstly the fridge had been defrosted but the
water left in the tray, the second thing was more difficult to find. After
a lot of messing about trying to fill the water tank which was full (that was
when we found the hose was too short) I tracked back the pipe work from tap to
pump and found the filter cap loose, tightening that let the pump work
properly and stopped the water leak.
So having had 4 glorious days relaxing in the sun -
these were our 'Ups' we set off to Christchurch for our 'Downs' L. The caravan people were keen to
put things right and apologies given, everything was done except the cooker
burner. For this we had to take the van to a specialist, which took
another couple of hours, so overall we lost the best part
of a
day
All done we set off south and quickly ran into road
works - resurfacing - and just as quickly a lorry coming the other way threw a
stone at us and cracked the wind screen. If we hadn't had to go back to
Christchurch we would not have gone through these road works! We pressed
on, somewhat disgruntled, Through the flat Canterbury Plain and arrived at
Timaru a few hours later. Timaru was nothing special, apart from the water which
tasted good, and we planned to continue south the following day.
We had already emptied the water tank once at Akaroa but
the foul taste lingered so we decided to change the water again at Timaru.
Whilst backing into the dump bay I didn't notice a post my front end was
swinging into and I dented the wing. This put me out of sorts with
everything. I was cross with myself for not seeing the post, I was cross
with van company for the foul tasting water. I was frustrated by the fact
that if we hadn't had to go back to Christchurch we wouldn't have a cracked
windscreen and we wouldn't have stopped at Timaru as we would have made
Dunedin, our planned destination. And, of course, all the hassle to follow
when they decide how much of our considerable excess they are going to
keep. At this point we were very down!
Well "Nil illegitimo Carborundum" as they say, or
something like that - I'm sure you know what I mean - never let them grind
you down. We set off with lifting spirits towards the mountainous
south.
Still smiling,
Roger & Mags
Mum & Dad
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