Enthusiastically Optimistic

Wow! I can honestly tell you I was really looking forward to Wellington. This is the home of the Lord Of The Rings movie franchise! Wellington is where Peter Jackson lives and where the Weta Workshop is located that does all the special effects for many Hollywood movies.

Cautiously Optimistic

The ferry ridge was interesting. I've never been on a ferry before, especially not one where you drive your car on to it. How was it? Smelly! The parking bay just smelled plain bad! We parked our van and made our way up top to the observation deck. The scenery was nice and a bit freezing, only 3 hours to go!

We arrived and drove out of the ferry to our next Top 10 Campsite (they're literally called "Top 10". You can look them up. There's about 50 of them all around New Zealand. How they could all be top 10 escapes me, but I digress). This was the worst one of all we've seen so far. It didn't help that when we got there it started to rain, when I say rain, I mean pouring, won’t stop rain. We called the Lord Of The Rings tours and found they were all full not to mention it was raining all day tomorrow. Ah well, we'll do the WETA Cave and head out and leave town.

The Next Day…Optimism Neutralized!

What happened? Well we started out thinking we'll have some shopping to do and head out on the road. It started out okay. Out on the road we went, heading to downtown Wellington. This is when we realized Wellington doesn't like us much. We were at a large intersection when the light turned green we started moving along with traffic. Out of the corner of my eye on the left I see this silver car just barreling at us! I hit the brakes and the car slams right into our van!! Right in the middle of the intersection we're sitting there. She realizes what she's done and starts sobbing with her head in her hands. We got out and surveyed the damage. Her car had a serious corner bump which may affect her ability to steer. Ours, well, "It's dead Jim!" The entire front end looked like it was wrapped around a flag pole and kicked with a rugby cleat for good measure. This was the final ride for Nathan The Emu. The engine is leaking everything everywhere! The police got there, along with the fire department and ambulance. It looked like a bomb went off somewhere.

Vern Our Hero!

After a couple hours in waiting to hear back on what our next steps and for Anna to calm down a bit. Especially since we remembered what the they told us when we rented the van, "Just remember that New Zealanders get their license at age 15 and that auto insurance is NOT compulsory." We finally spoke with the rental company, they told us to just meet Vern and he would help. Vern turned to be our hero and totally saved our asses! He took the van and ourselves to his shop. When we got there he let us use his office to speak with the rental company. Basically our option was to fly to Auckland and they'll have a van for us there. Luckily we bought the expensive insurance so we wouldn’t have to pay for Nathan, not that it was our fault.  Sadly Nathan died with a full tank of gas (which cost us $108 by the way at 2.15/litre). Using Vern's place we booked our flight to Auckland on Jetstar, packed up our things from Nathan (bedding and food included) and Vern  drove us to the airport. It turns out he's half Mauri (pronounced "Maudi". The "R" is rolled pretty hard) and explained a lot to us about their culture and how their people co exist with the gov't. It was very refreshing and fascinating to hear their story and compare it to Canada's. Let's just say Canada can learn a lot from New Zealand on how to respect native people and their culture. We also spoke a lot about beer. New Zealanders love their beer as much as Canadians do! The man saved our asses and got us to the airport as well as gave us a lot of info about the country. He definitely made the whole experience much better and more memorable. Thanks Vern!!

Eulogy For Nathan The Emu

We are gathered here today to lay to rest Nathan The Emu. He was a great van. One of the first for Wicked Campers. Through his bravery and pioneering spirit he helped set a trend and spread the word on Wicked Campers, allowing them to grow to become the company they are today. He ferried his passengers with that "retro flare & gusto" as best he could with a small 1.4 liter engine. Not built for camping, he took it on with flare and dignity. Nathan's life was ended by an errant vehicle barreling at it with vile, venomous disdain with but one wish! To end the life of Nathan The Emu! It may have succeeded, but Nathan was brave and put up a great fight. Not backing down and taking to the silver offender with aplomb. Nathan is survived by the people of Wicked Campers and the many campers who have had the privilege of being sheltered and transported by him.

Ali
All pictures are (c) Anna