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Bad times in New Zealand so far.
After being stuck in Auckland for three days and achieving nothing but Nandos (every day 3 days on the trot, shameful), we were extremely chuffed to finally find a campervan company that would rent to us (we were told this would be a piece of piss since it is going into Winter and so low season) and be the proud new renters of a clapped out Toyota scooby doo type van (with no toilet or shower...the sink in the back does nothing for your dignity).
First day on the road and we were told we'd be able to 'free camp' pretty much anywhere, so tightarse David and I (Asia has ruined us, we're reluctant to pay $5 or more for a room anywhere) thought we could just pull up beside a beach somewhere and sleep like proper hippies. But there seems to be signs everywhere saying no overnight camping so everywhere we go we feel like those pikeys that camp by sportscity (you've all seen the tramps, cleaning in the canal and hangin their duds out wherever they fancy). We pulled into a campsite last night which seemed quite nice, and had a unconfortable nights sleep.
In the morning we had a wee tiff since we thought I'd misplaced the camera. More about that later. Today we decided that we were guna be mega cheap and find a free campsite. What an error. On the way we pulled up near a beach, thought we'd have a nice lunch there. Dave's steak ended up crunchy from sand and the seagulls were eying up my equally crunchy tuna sandwich. Delicious.
The satnav which we got (thank god we did, the woman told us everywhere was well signposted and we literally couldnt get lost...this is us...of course we can) then sent us down a dirt road. Excellent at first, off the beaten track, amazing views etc. Wasnt so great when the 45 minutes that it predicted it would take us got to 2 hours and we still hadnt made it...all for a bloody free campsite! At this point we were only on a quarter of a tank of petrol so decided to head to the nearest petrol station, another 47km. We continued down the crappy little road that we'd been on for the other god knows how many hours (which was so narrow that a normal or even anorexic car would've struggled, let alone our obese beast) at around 20km per hour. It had started raining so there were a fair few skids (not as many as in Daves wazzers though) and we even collided into the side of the bushes at one point (though better that than over the cliff) when we got stuck and I thought I was going to have to get out and push :s.
When we finally arrived at the petrol station in a hicky little village it was closed...there were no lights on anywhere...no one about (this was about 7 oclock...New Zealand obviously know how to live it up) so we had to travel to the next main town (which is where we are now - Gisbourne), with the petrol light on orange, crapped ourselves. But made it...lucky, we thought. Not so much when we topped it up with $80 and David opened up an empty wallet when he went to pay. Turns out that there must have been someone in our campervan last night when we nipped (literally 2 minutes walk away) to make a cuppa in the kitchen, who took the camera and the money from David's wallet, even the ozzy dollars the cheeky b******s.
Reported it to the police but theres probably not a lot they can do. The insurance will cover the camera but not the money. Well and truely peeved but lucky that they didn't take the card really as it's all still just swipe and sign here. And lucky that I'd taken my bag with ipod etc in with me.
Just in a hostel now where we've spent $30 to stay in the car park in our crap van which we've already grown to despise. Daves just gone to have a shower, got locked out and had to army roll over the fence lol! We are just TOO lucky. As always looking on the bright side though and happy that we're ok at least :).
Roll on Fiji eh :)
Lots of Love
Sheree and Dave
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