Map of Travels

So because Jill asked for it (and because its a good idea), at the bottom you'll find a map of where we are right now.  We left Christchurch two days ago after our Beast failed to pass the Warrant of Fitness (WOF).  For those who don't know it basically says that your car is roadworthy and its a must if you want to sell your car.  We have 28 days to fix the items below or we have to pay $25 for a new inspection.  The reasons it didn't pass are because:

- A big chip in the windshield (there was a little sticker covering it when we bought it)

- A rust hole in the body behind the rear bumper (the inpection guy said a panelbeater could fix it)

- Parking brake needs adjustment

- Rear hatch didn't open

So this is a giant pain in the butt because now we're going to have to pay for all of these things.  Those old people who sold us the van suddenly aren't seeming so nice anymore (i'm sure they knew about these things).

Anyways, I was quite upset when it didn't pass (even though I had a feeling it wouldn't), so afterwards we drove from the East coast (Christchurch - Point A on map) to the West Coast (Hokitika) where we spent the night.  Yesterday we drove South (Franz Josef - Point B on map) where we stayed, and today we're going to hike the glacier here.

(For those who don't know what the definition of a glacier is - like me - its a slowly moving mass or river of ice formed by the accumulation or compaction of snow on mountains or near the poles).  So there should be pictures - we'll update today or tomorrow.  Later.

Back by popular demand... pictures

Well the unspeakable happened. I knocked Daisy over and some of her buds fell off! This is my sad face and the buds that used to be firmly attached to our beloved plant.

Two nights ago (on our way South), we stopped to see the Cathedral Cliffs. It looked nice on the map, and I guess the picture is nice, but it was a letdown because we also saw on the map that we could camp for cheap here, and then when we arrived we found the only available campsite was a powered one. But we got our money's worth by charging all our devices, taking LONG showers, and it only set us back $18NZD. So not too bad. (It should be noted that I get a bit spoiled when we stop at a powered site because I like the comfort that it provides - then when we just park somewhere for the night, I'm a bit dissapointed - at first).

One of our BIG stops in the South Island was the Fur Seal Colony located North of Christchurch. Needless to say it was amazing. Tons of seals (including little pups).

You can see in this picture the pups are all swimming in the shallow pool in the back right while the parents lay on the rocks sunning themselves. Much like humans I'd say.

Some people were taking pictures here, so I handed the camera to Ayu and...

She took one of me.

Here's another stop we made on our way to Christchurch. Notice the snow-capped mountains in the background. Amazing.

And here we are in Christchurch. The water is cold, but it doesn't stop a whole bunch of people from enjoying it anyways. You can surf all day for $20 (rental of board and wetsuit), or windsurf, and kitesurf. All of these Ayu and I plan to do while in New Zealand. Not sure what today has in store, but we'll keep you updated. Toodles!

Pictures!

Some of you have been wondering what we've been eating. I'll admit, living in a van (and not running the refrigerator to save on fuel costs) hasn't been the easiest, but I'm happy to say that we've done remarkably well thus far. And we've been healthy as well. Here's a typical sandwich that we've been eating for lunch (it's a monster one just the way I like it).
Wholemeal bread, lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, green pepper (or capsicum like they call it here), jalepeno relish, tuna, and possibly some cheese (although that depends if we've just come out of the groccery store or not). Pretty healthy I'd say.


Breakfast usually consists of cereal with some boxed (long-life) soy milk, but occasionally I have been known to make my famous Pancakes! For those who want to know what they taste like, just read the recipe and follow the instructions below - very healthy by the way.Kyle's Famous Top-Secret Banana Pancake Recipe

So here are your ingredients:
- 250ml = 1 cup of wholemeal flour
- 1 egg (preferably cage-free for the poor chicken's sake)
- 1 small box of soy milk (250 ml = 1 cup again)
- 2 bananas finely chopped

Mix the soy milk, water, and flour together and beat with a fork for about 30 seconds to a minute. Once nicely mixed, add chopped bananas and mix in.
Turn the burner on medium-low and let the pan heat until when you toss some drops of water on the pan they sizzle and evaporate. No need for grease of any kind - just use a Teflon pan and you'll be fine. Add a bit of the mixture and use the pan to spread it around evenly. Once bubbles start to form on the pancake and pop, get ready to flip.

Note: Only flip ONCE!!! If you flip more or prematurely it won't be light and fluffy (it will be dense and gross).
Loosen the bottom of the pancake from the pan and flip over. Once flipped in about 30 seconds, your pancake is ready to eat. Use any topping you want. We used honey because it keeps well without refrigeration. Enjoy :)
Here's a picture from the ferry to the South Island
Here's the Beast in the Ferry.
And arriving at Picton.

Greetings from the South Island

...and touchdown! We're on the South Island. I've never been this far down below the equator. I'm quite enjoying the fact that the moon and stars are upside down, the storms spin the other way, and the sun goes from right to left here. So far (even though we haven't really gotten that far. We're in Bleinheim now), the South Island is much greener than the North Island. I like. 

*****

We caught the ferry from Wellington yesterday. I like Wellington. Mostly because it reminds me of San Francisco, but also because it's really hilly, it's next to the sea and its city centre is small enough to walk around in less than an hour. Just my kind of deal. Here's a photo of the hill leading to a lookout point called Mt. Victoria.

Here's a picture of a San Francisco-lookalike suburb near the airport,

*****

We took the Bluebridge ferry from Wellington to Picton. The journey lasted just a little over three hours and was quite nice. I'll let Kyle put up the photos he took from the deck. 

We had to wait for a while to board the ferry. It takes a while to arrange all the vehicles going onboard. This is what happens when Kyle gets bored. He takes things apart. Here are before and after photos which happened while we were waiting...

 

*****

We arrived in Picton and after all the excitement of crossing from one island to the other, felt completely ravenous. Kyle wanted pizza, and I wanted chocolate. We drove around and didn't see anything we liked so decided to drive on to the next big town. So here we are in Bleinheim (famous for wineries). 

We found a Pizza Hut, but well, decided we didn't really want to spend too much money satisfying our cravings (since we really are watching the pennies). So we decided to use our burners, and walked into Countdown (grocery store) and got ready-made pizza crusts, cheese, some sauce, vegetarian cajun sausages (someone, point me towards more vegetarian-friendly supermarkets. It's been a chore finding vegetarian/halal/kosher food items so far), and a Sara Lee chocolate pudding, which to my pleasant surprise, was halal! I've actually found quite a few Australian-made products with halal authentication. 

Well done, Australia! Two thumbs up, wahey!

Pudding (yum), we tried cottage cheese on the first pizza (watery), me fooling around with the sauce (looks like Kyle), and the outcome...really good pizza (finally).

Kyle's quite handy with the grill. My hero. 

Lesson learnt: Don't walk into a grocery store when hungry. You tend to overbuy. We finished all the food between the two of us (two pizzas last night and one for lunch today) but we didn't really have to eat that much in one sitting. 

*****

It's after lunchtime now and we're still in Bleinheim. Kyle's figured out that we blew a fuse which is why the 12V and stereo wasn't working. So we're gonna go get a new one right after I finish this entry and be on our way to Kaikoura where we hope to spot some whales, dolphins or seals. 

*****

I had projected that we would take about six weeks to do the South Island, until I looked at the map this morning and realised we're not that far from Christchurch already and that's almost the midpoint on this side of the coast. 

Just as we were getting comfortable with living in The Beast, we two crazies have come up with yet another idea to throw us off your our rockers...

...so what would happen if we sold The Beast, and continued on on motorbike? It would only be for a few weeks, and we would definitely be prepping for Around The World On Wheels then. 

Don't worry, don't worry...we haven't made up our minds just yet. We still have to weigh the pros and cons, mainly whether or not we'd be spending more money on motorcycle than we are with the van. 

We'll think it through.

*****

LATEST UPDATE ON DAISY: Kyle just knocked her over and a few of her buds came off!!! I've got pictures which I will post once we get our batteries recharged. She'll be receiving extra care for the next few days. Pray for her recovery. 

KYLE!!!

*****

Love in greener pastures. Where hair matters not.

Wellington... continued

So I'm back on my schedule (for now). That means no pictures today. But there will be more soon.

Today we both walked and drove around a but in Wellington. Its a really nice town (Ayu says it reminds her a lot of San Francisco). Very hilly, lots of small Victorian Style houses, the town is situated right on the Ocean, and everyone in the city (and their mother's it seems) are outside. Walking, running, rollerblading, skateboarding, and everthing between. We drove up this very steep hill this morning where I proceeded to take apart the Beast. I was trying to get to the bottom of this power inverter problem and had to remove a lot of dashboard. In the end, nature called, and I had to throw everything back together so that I could find a washroom (or toilet depending on where you are from - here they call it toilet - most Americans find this word crude).

After this we parked the Beast and walked around. We found a few Halal Malaysian restaurants, but due to time constraints it seems we're not going to be able to try them. Which is sad. Right now we're sitting in the Architecture and Design building on the campus of the University of Wellington charging our computers. Tomorrow we'll be boarding the ferry to the South Island at 11:00Am. The Beast is coming too. So the next update will come from there. Stay tuned (More pictures will be coming soon).

The Wind is Mighty in NZ

After driving around NZ for a whole month (tomorrow marks one month, ladies and gentlemen!), Kyle finally drove on the wrong side of the road today. He left a parking lot and coolly drove on the wrong side of the road (which is the right side of the road) for a whole three seconds before noticing a turning lane with the arrow facing the other direction. Luckily for us he swung onto the right side of the road (which is the left side of the road) in time to avoid oncoming traffic. 

And I was giggling the whole time.  I know, I know...I'm evil. Ah well. *toothy grin*

*****

For those who want to know...Daisy is still alive. Even though I have not watered her for three days now. All because the little piece of cardboard that came with her said to not water her too much. And to dry her out in between watering. She still looks green. I don't know. I'd ask Kyle only I don't want to. Because Daisy is mine. But feel free to leave comments if You know better.

*****

Zorbing. I must say, the person who came up with zorbing is a genius. I can't imagine it takes much to maintain a plastic ball. The people who own the place must make a fortune by letting people roll down hills in a ball. 

This is me coming down the hill...

I think the last photo showed just the moment I went under the water (the guy filled it up too much) and closed my eyes for just a split second, and then started feeling dizzy then after. Bah! By the time I got out I wasn't walking in a line, there was water in my ear, and it was co-o-old but boy that was an experience :o).

*****

We went white water rafting yesterday. The Kaituna makes the claim that it's the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world, 7 m high. The fall was fun. We went practically vertical and got wet. Somehow or other, we managed to land without turning upside down too. So that was an experience. But other than The Fall and a few other mini-falls, we didn't get to see much whitewater rapids. 

If anybody has any suggestions on really good rafting rivers, please, please leave a message. I've heard so much about the whitewater rafting in NZ but that wasn't at all what I had been hoping for (other than the 7m drop).

***** 

We drove all the way from Lake Taupo, which is NZ's largest lake, to Wellington today. We saw some gorgeous views, from volcanic mountains with craters on them, to flat fields, and majestic and angry seas. We also passed by a LOTR site (our road atlas has these icons pointing them out) along the way, and peeled our eyes open for anything that looked familiar...but didn't manage to. But never fear, I'm sure there'll be plenty more sites ahead. Apparently there are three right here in Wellington city!

*****

I've gotten quite dark in the last few days of being out in the sun. I almost didn't recognise myself when I looked into the mirror this morning. It was quite a scary sight. While I don't burn, my skin tends to go from being brown straight to black. I've been quite the stubborn one, refusing to use sunscreen. I guess I'll have to from now on.

*****

We're in Wellington (And Still Alive)!

So I haven't stuck to my schedule exactly - and for that I apologize. But the last two days have been pretty hectic and I've got lots to show you all. First up is our crazy Zorbing and Whitewater rafting experience. By the way, more pictures may be coming if we can get our German whitewater rafting co-riders to send us the professional pictures that the company was selling for $45 (we were too cheap and just took my camera with us, but I'm giving them my pictures so hopefully they'll return the favor).Oh, hello there... I just dove head-first into my first Zorb! Please join me for a ride in a giant plastic air-filled ball (with some hose water inside so there's less friction) down a grassy hill.
The company dares you to stand up the whole way but its much more enjoyable just to sit :)
Put your feet up (and enjoy sloshing around like clothes in a washing machine)!
Here's what it looks like from outside (Ayu is inside this one).Ayu is going to demonstrate how to exit the Zorb - Step 1: Get the guy helping you all wet!Step 2: Feel with your toes if it is too cold outside - if so return to the ZorbStep 3: Like a child being born - slide out in one fluid motion (and bring the water with you).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next we went Whitewater Rafting (the same day no less)!
This is the waterfall we just went over - 23 feet tall! It was quite a rush to say the least and the raft got completely vertical (Pictures will hopefully be coming of the raft in mid-air soon).
This is the group. The other two are the German couple.
And this is not a cake. This is cheese. Covered in Ash. It tasted somewhat like Brie, and was really good. I saw it at the supermarket and knew I had to try it out (and was glad I did)!

So now we're in Wellington which is the capital of New Zealand. We just arrived tonight after driving all day and we're going to have a look around tomorrow and then the following day we're off to the South Island via vehicle ferry.

The latest problem on the Beast is that the 12V cigarette lighter/outlet is no longer working. This is bad because our power inverter (which we use to charge our laptops - which we use to update the website) cannot work without the 12V. So Mr. Fix-it is going to be busy tomorrow figuring out how to fix it. Wish me luck (or kiss the website goodbye - up to you). Until later...