An Unfortunate Decision (and South Island –Part 2)

 It was windy.  It had been windy for a few days.  Maybe gradually wind wears its way into your ear tunnels to mess with your ability to make smart decisions. In any case, it got to us.  We were down at a beautiful beach ready to enjoy yet another delicious home-cooked camping meal, but the wind was too strong to get the cookers going.  Luckily, I found this great spot, a small gravel opening, surrounded by bush, on the opposite side of the road.  Chris shrugged a “sure” to my suggestion to eating dinner there so I turned in without hesitation.  That’s when the sinking began. I felt the wheels turn deeper into the gravel as I pressed the gas to go forward. Uh oh. Chris immediately took control in the driver’s seat, but we ended up underestimating the power of the gravel and found ourselves completely stuck, with gravel up to the chassis and the two front wheels in giant wells.  We dug and dug, nothing. We tried wedging our plywood table behind the wheels for support. Nope. We realized we needed help.  Luckily a local family had decided to go for a post-dinner drive down to the ocean to check out the big waves due to all the wind.  They didn’t know what they were getting themselves into: a three-hour mission to help some idiot travelers out of a gravel pit!  First we tried attaching ratchet straps to the van (he had a truck).  They snapped and the van didn’t budge. Then Dave (our new best friend) headed back to his house to get rope – it took him at least a half-hour so clearly it was out of his way.  The third try was a charm.  There was a lot of rolling around under the van, a lot of debating on which type of knot to tie (Chris’ sailor knot knowledge came in handy!), and a lot of crossed fingers and toes..  but on the third try (the rope broke once even!), Wobs came smoking and squealing out of her unfortunate situation. Success!!! For the next day or two, Wobs was feeling the pain and “tink-tink-ing” her way down the highway as bits of gravel continuously made their way out from under the car. Crisis averted! Oh, and one more funny bit – the AA Chris called before we decided to have a go ourselves closed at 5pm and there is only one tow-truck driver in all of the Marlborough region. Chris phoned and left a message on “Tony the truck-driver”’s machine, but he was probably out on the piss or something, we never heard back!

Chris frolicking with the sea foam minutes before....

...Still smiling, but how quickly the situation changed!

Prior to this unfortunate event, we had an amazing time on our other hike, the Abel Tasman! It’s a complete contrast to the Kepler- instead of hiking up into the mountains, you hike along the beach, and even have to wade through estuaries at several points.  We kayaked the first day and went past a seal colony where seal pups were out on the rocks and playfully swimming around in the water.  We pulled up to a secluded beach for our final lunch with Matan and Andrea before ‘paddling’ our separate ways. We camped at this amazing, private spot where there is a lagoon at high tide, and we had the latest sun of the whole campsite. Good times! We then hiked across beaches and waded through low tide crossings for 17ks the next day to get to the next site. Such a contrast from the Kepler and so beautiful too!

Our not-too-shabby farewell lunch with our travel buddies!

Best camping spot ever!

On the way back to Auckland we hit up "Windy Welly" (Wellington) and it sure lived up to its name.  My favorite spot on the way back that we hit was Napier, a town that was devastated by an earthquake in the 1930s and all the buildings were re-built in the Art Deco style that was popular at the time.  We had lunch at a cafe and sat out in the sun... yes, the sun! Maybe that's why we loved the place so much, it's crazy what a difference the warm sun can make! In any case, this place had great character and we also went to the best winery there because we hit it up at the end of the day and they had 12(!!) bottles open for tasting.  Nice!! 


One of our last camp spots we stayed in required almost a 45-min drive into the middle of nowhere, along this gravel road to a small grass clearing in the bush.  We arrived late at night, so I was already a bit creeped out.  Chris then heard the call of a Kiwi (an actual bird, not a person!), so he took my hand and we went on a search.  Well, that lasted about 2 minutes because I heard a rustling in the bush, and although Chris assured me that the only thing it could possibly be was a bird, I just couldn't get the Canadian voice out of my head thinking it had to be something bigger.  Well, I guess we were both right in the end! We awoke to a dreadlocked-hippie chick making her way out of the bush in the morning.  Turns out it wasn't a bird, but a human sleeping in a hammock tent, who happened to be from Salt Spring Island!!! Ha ha, crazy...


Well, we made it (and more importantly Wobs made it) safely back to Auckland, where we will spend a few days catching up for one last visit with friends and family, planning to an extent what Southeast Asia might look like for us, and mentally preparing Chris for the heat and humidity that is SEA. 


Sending love to Vancouver,

Lauren and Chris xo