We had to put down a big deposit on the campervan which instilled all sorts of fear into me whenever we drove that huge honking piece of metal. Add to that the windy mountain roads, the left-side driving with the right-side wheel, and the wet weather and you can bet I was NOT going to drive the campervan. Fortunately, Jamie was/is an excellent driver and navigated the 7m vehicle expertly and managed the 13 days with nary a scratch.
The temperamental weather did offer some challenges to which I had to act as the "voice of reason" (read: pessimist) to Jamie's more adventurous optimism. Take for example this "road":
There is clearly a river running through this road. I'm pretty sure Jamie knew that there were a few "fording" situations on this particular road to get to a hike he wanted to do, and thought that by the time we got to one of these fording sections I would be asleep or something. Yeah, we turned around and did a different hike that required no fording of raging rivers in the campervan. Fortunately, the drive back was quite lovely and I didn't mind having to do it twice.
Later that evening, the storm also decided to knock down a huge tree into our path. Normally, I would be pretty freaked out at the prospect of being on a tiny mountain road, in the rain, at night and a certainty that AAA wouldn't be able to help us. But, being in New Zealand, it wasn't long before several muscle-bound men also got stopped by the tree blocking the road and took it upon themselves to clear the tree with their rugby-playing biceps.
And, of course, the help of some chains and a strong truck. I don't know that a handful of Americans would have been as resourceful and quick to solve the crisis in a similar situation. Those were some stereotypically-manly men.
After a lovely few days driving up the West Coast of New Zealand during which we saw glaciers! kiwis! rainbows! we ended up in Kaiteriteri with a lovely view of the Tasman Bay.
(There's a glacier somewhere behind those clouds...)
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