Picked up our new buggie at the depot near the airport at Auckland. I call it the mini bun bus. It's a turbo diesel ... kinda gutless but it sort of doesn't matter. Roads here are twisty and traverse mountain ranges seemingly every 100km. Posted speed limits here seem to me to be more of a dare than a limit ... kinda like " I dare you to get that rig up to 90 kms over the next bit ..." Kiwis have interesting bill boards reminding drivers about speed (eg dead guy with toe tag in the morge "Speeding ticket" or "Listen mate ... sorry you are not an A1 driver ... SLOW DOWN") Of course these don't apply to me cause everyone knows the I am an A1 driver.
Made it down to South Island in one day. We had heard about 10M seas in the straight and Karen was popping gravol early this am. Turned out to be calm all 3.5 hrs at sea. We followed Buller's river for 150km through and over and back again along the gourge towards the west coast. Incredible scenery. Excitement enhanced by the mystery of whether or not we would survive the day careening down the narrow highways shared with campers and trucks and Mario Andretti wannabes in slammed El Camino type vehicles that are everywhere down here.
We made a stop at NZ's longest swing bridge across the gourge, M+M enjoyed zip line ride (double harness) back across. Karen and I are liking the "self contained" facilities in the new bus. This one even comes with hot water shower and DVD / TV. Thank God for the video ... cause I was getting desparate for "Dallas" reruns and catching up on the latest Cricket tests. Tommorow likely heading down west coast towards Queenston and bungy jump madness. Still no Tim Horton's in sight anywhere ... still settlling for instant decaf with Baileys. Life (and the instant coffee) is good.
BOSgone
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