Winter is still hanging on by a thread, and skiers are still coming into the town in drips and drabs trying to make the most of the retreating snow, but there is no denying the changing of seasons is upon us.
We have had a very mixed last month.We have continued to have our ups and downs as we have put up with our work routines, in line with the promise we made to ourselves to make as much money as possible so that we could hopefully enjoy the spring and summer months without having to work.
We have had a few frantic days and nights at work. Meg has been in tears because of some guests' rudeness towards her, while at the other extreme she has also been sent a bottle of premium Rum from a guest as a way of thanks 'for a brilliant weekend'..... Humph.
I have had some pretty long shifts on busy saturday nights at Kings. There was a live music event a couple of weekends ago (for those that know NZ music, Cornerstone Roots and King Kapisi were playing), which lasted until the early hours, but nights like that tend to be quite enjoyable, if a little exhausting. Much more painful are quieter days\nights, when there are few guests and clock-watching is the order of the day.
The 2 highlights since our last blog entry has been Meg's 32nd birthday and our 1st wedding anniversary. For Meg's birthday, Simon offered to come and look after the lodge for a couple of days so that we could go away and celebrate. We decided to go to Taupo. I spent a bit of time organising some surprises so that we could remind ourselves of why we are in New Zealand. We left Ohakune at 8 in the morning with jam sandwiches made and flask of herbal tea all packed up. We travelled to Taupo along route 1, which takes us along the Desert Road past the central mountains (Ruapehu, Ngarahoe, and Tongariro). It is an awesome drive as it took us through pretty bare deserted bush, while the Mountains soared up from the earth to dominate the surroundings.
I had organised for a trip on the Huka Jetboat at 11am, so we made our way to Huka falls. Huka falls is NZ's largest waterfall, in terms of quantity of water that passes over per second). The actual descent is not all that big (about 15 metres), but this is compensated by the huge propulsion of water that is continually spouted over the top. To put it in some sort of perpestive, it is the only outlet for water from Lake Taupo, and quickly condenses a river of water about 20 metres wide and 5 metres deep in a narrow channel that is about 10 metres wide and 2 metres deep. Therefore the surge that powers the water over the edge is rather awesome. The jetboat trip was pretty cool. Because the boats uses a jet propulsion method of movement, it means they can travel in very shallow areas of water at a hight speed. We were treated to some very close shaves with trees and cliffs and were shown the nearby dam and the inevitable close-up with the Huka Falls. It was all very impressive, all the while being filmed by an accompanying speedboat – we were told later that our 'pilot' is due to be on NZ's 'Dancing with the stars' TV show and this was his introduction piece!
After our speedboat trip we drove over the road and had a quick bite of our jam sandwiches (still impressed with the beautiful simplicity of fruit preserves) before a horse trek! I think Meg was quite pleased to get to spend 2 hours trotting through woodland and along country paths. We even got to do some cantering, which was fun but a bit painful on the nether regions! Not being used to horses, I did enjoy the experience and would definitely be keen for some more horsing around, but someone will need to teach me the best way to sit to avoid discomfort.
Following the horse trek we finished our lunch off overlooking Huka Falls, and paid a trip to the local 'Honey world'. Since we were enthralled at Bury Show last year by the local beekeepers, we both have a fascination with honey and the world of bees, so we bought ourselves some Pohutakawa honey after a few tasting samples of different kinds.
I had also booked Meg a 90minute massage\treatment at the Taupo hot pools, so we drove back through town while Meg had no idea what awaited her. I dropped her off at the said location and went back to our motel (Simon had kindly booked us a night in Taupo) to drop off our bags and so that I could make the most of the spa pool in our room! However, I think Meg's 90minute treatment (called 'Eau Thermale') ticked all the right boxes. When I picked her up she came out half asleep and very floppy!
Back in the motel room, Meg opened all her cards and presents that she had received. She had even had a cake baked for her by Sara, a friend at Kings.
In the evening, we visited a restaurant called Pimentos, which allowed us to drink the bottle of Pinot Noir that the owners of Kings had given Meg. All in all, a pretty good day.
The following day we had hoped to go skiing on the way back from Taupo, but the snow report was not very good, so we decided to have a wander around Taupo and slowly make our way back home. Taupo didn't seem anything particularly special, but has the advantage of having the lake at its side, so lots of activities (mainly in the summer, I think) go on there. We decided that the best thing to do was to have Fish and Chips by the lakeside. It was lovely. On the way back, we stopped off at a nature reserve by the water's edge to have an hour's sleep. It was brill, and reminded ourselves of how ace it was to sleep in our beloved campervan.
Unfortunately, it proved to be our last sleep in Peggy.....
The next morning, as Meg drove to work, she broke down as she was turning right at a junction. After a few tears as she tried to push our 5 metre van across the road (all the skiers and snowboarders were just too damn desperate to get up the mountain to bother stopping to help a lone tear-strewn woman push her massive vehicle across a busy road........), she got to work safe and sound. She rang me from work, and I came to meet her at the end of her shift. We thought that Peggy would be suffering from a usual battery problem - we had to jumpstart her a number of times over the last month. However, on this occasion there was no luck with anything we tried. Ian and Selwyn (our boss and a colleague from Kings), who are more mechanically minded than we are, also had a look and tried a few other ideas, but nothing was working. It was only when Selwyn took a look at the oil-level that we realised what had happened. We had ran out of oil.
Our hearts sank. We hadn't topped her up with oil for a couple of months, and it appears we had been running on empty. The engine had seized. It is difficult to explain how unbelievably stupid we both felt. Since being in Ohakune we had only been doing short journeys and not thought about topping up with oil, but it had come back to bite us on the bum in a rather expensive way....
We had it looked at and properly diagnosed by a mechanic and we were left with 2 options – get a new engine, or get a new van. Both would cost about the same amount.
We started to look on trademe (the New Zealand version of eBay) for new vans and there were plenty to choose from, but we were keen to get one a similar length and height to Peggy as she gave us a lot of space to live and sleep in. A lot of campervans that are on the market are renovated tradesman's vans, but they have little else except a bed in the back, and no other living space. With Peggy, she had extra length to move about it, and cook etc. Basically we had spoiling ourselves for the last few months and didn't really want to downsize to a smaller van.
We eventually found one based in Tauranga which is about 200kms away. This van was the same model as Peggy but 3 years newer and about 100,000 less miles on the speedo. The seller offered to take Peggy off our hands as they planned to either a) use her for parts, or b) fix her and sell her for more.
Simon offered to go to Tauranga and check the van out as he lives in Matamata (which is a lot closer than Ohakune). His report was good – the van drove well, and was in good condition. It had passed it's WOF (equivalent of MOT) the day before at an offical Vehicle Testing Station, so it all seemed fine,.
We agreed that the new van could be dropped off at the weekend and Peggy could be picked up a few days later. The new van is not kitted out with bed/carpets/benches etc, so the plan was to transfer the bed, fridge and worktops from Peggy to the new van. With it being the same model, we are hoping that the fittings should be a straightforward swap from one to the other. We'll see....
Anyway, the van was delivered on sunday morning, and when it arrived we obviously took it for an obligatory test drive before exchanging monies. The new van drove really well, much better and smoother than Peggy, all the dashboard fittings/lights worked (most of Peggy's hadn't!), so we were sold. We exchanged cash and Darryl (for that was his name) agreed to return the following week to pick up Peggy.
As he left, he mentioned that he had had a problem with the battery on the drive down to Ohakune, but had swapped it for the battery in his other van (the one that his girlfriend drove down, and that they were driving home in), and now it worked fine...
WELL. As he left we decided to take it for a longer drive and to enjoy the freedom of having a van again. First stop was the garage as we had to fill up on diesel. Well, we put $20 dollars in, and as Meg returned from the cashier to the van, she noticed (well, you couldn't miss it!) a drip-drip-drip of diesel coming from the fuel pipe onto the forecourt floor.
'Blimey' wasn't really the word that sprang to mind, but that will do this blog.
We drove abck to Canoe Safaris, rang Darryl and left a 'concerned' message on his answer phone.
So, that was the first problem. A bit annoying, you might think, but not actually the end of the world as it was just a fuel pipe that needed replacing.
We drove to a mechanic the next morning to confirm that it was just the rubber fuel pipe (he confirmed it). As we made to drive away from the mechanic's garage, we couldn't start the new van. It sounded like the battery. We called the mechanic over again who checked the battery – nothing was wrong with the battery except that it wasn't charging, so the conclusion was that the alternator wasn't working.
'Blimey' again.
Anyhow, the one good thing about our situation – if this can be a good thing – is that we still had Peggy as our bartering tool. Darryl had knocked $1000 off the price of the new van for Peggy. When we eventually spoke to Darryl, he was very sorry about the predicament that we found ourselves in and agreed that he would fix the fuel pipe and alternator before we would let him take Peggy away. (I don't think he really had a choice). In his defence, and I am sure most people will not believe this, he seems like a genuinely good sort and did not know that any of these problems were in existence. Simon has said that when he had viewed the van in Tauranga, there was definitely no diesel leak, and if the alternator was not working the van would not have passed the WOF. It must just be our unbelievably bad luck that these 2 issues happened at the same time as the van was being brought to us. At least if they were going to happen, it is better that they have have happened now rather than in 3 months time.
Darryl's mechanic Brett has now been to Ohakune and spent a day fixing our new van – fitting a new alternator and fuel pipe and we now have a working van!! It feels very exciting, and it is very enjoyable to drive. It also has a new name.
Salvador.
The big job now is to fit the back of the van out with carpet, bed, etc, so that he is livable-in for when we get on our way. So we have about 2 weeks to get it sorted. We are very excited about this.
This problem with the vans has obviously hit us financially. Nearly all the money that we have earned at Kings this season is going towards our new van rather than going towards our adventures/activities as hoped. Fortunately, some of this is being made up by the fact that Meg has managed to get some photography work that should see us through the next few months. She managed to get a commission for The Wool Company, but I will leave the full details/story of this for Meg to write in the next blog.....
The other big event this last month is our first anniversary as Mr and Mrs Kerr. The 13th September fell on a sunday, and on saturday night I was allowed to leave work early so that we could go out for a meal at the best restaurant in town, or so everyone said. Indeed it was really good, and was the first Saturday night we've had to ourselves since being in Ohakune.
On the sunday, by miracles of miracles, we had no rooms to clean. Usually Sundays are the busiest days of the week with guests leaving, meaning lots of rooms (normally 5 or 6) to clean. But this particular Sunday no-one was schedule to leave! This was fantastic news, which meant we could a) have a lie in, and b) go skiing for the day.
We decided to go around to the other Ski-field on Mt Ruapehu, Whakapapa. It is about 40 minutes drive. (It should be mentioned that while Peggy has been broken, Simon has kindly let us use his VW Passat, which feels really fast and smooth compared to what we're used to). Whakapapa seemed a lot bigger than Turoa, and the landscape is also much more varied – lots of cliffs and valleys everywhere. We spent about 3 hours there, with mixed feelings about the snow. It was obviously softening up quite a lot with the sunshine, so much so that is was turning slushy, and also was very bumpy/lumpy on many runs. We both fell over a hatful of times, but fortunately didn't manage to hurt ourselves in the process. We are both left with the overwhelming decision that we are definitely fair-weather skiers – we need plenty of good snow and good weather. Lots of people here go up the mountain whatever weather there is, and when the snow is either hard/very soft, but, frankly, we don't see the point/enjoyment in that. So fairweather skiers we are, and unashamedly so.
Other days/events that are worth noting are:
One day we went to Horopito car wreckers. This is the largest car wreckers in Australasia. We had driven past a couple of times but not actually visited before, so one day when we had a couple of hours to spare, we decided to go and have a look around. One other reason was that we hoped we might find a campervan that we could salvage some cool fittings from.
So we had a wander around the car yards, where there were 1000's of old cars, all in a state of complete disrepair and effectively just structures of rust, with plants growing in the main body of the cars. Cars were piled on top of each other everywhere you looked, and it was very cool.
We didn't find any campervans worth looting but we had a look around the 'museum'. This wasn't really a museum but just a collection of car parts. If you imagined that cars had just been dismantled into every little separate piece possible and collected in boxes in a large warehouse, then this was the place. There were boxes/shelves of steering wheels, gear sticks, indicator levers, rear view mirrors, windscreen wipers, and all the tiny nuts/bolts that make up the engine/mechanics of the car. It was a Dad/photographer's dream. I look forward to when I get excited about things like that.
We have been to the local cinema twice in the last month. The cinema is a tiny one-screen cinema that is open about 4 times a week to show one film at a time. We have seen 'The Boy in Striped Pyjamas' – a rather twee film about WW2/holocaust that I found rather simplistic, and the much better 'District 9', a Sci-Fi film about a race of aliens in Johannesburg. The cinema is one of those old-fashioned theatres that feels like it hasn't been cleaned in a decade, is dusty, and is freezing cold. I love it.
The only walk we've been on this month is part of the round-the-mountain track. If done in full, it should take about 5 -6 days. We had about 4 hours, so just did a small section of it. It took us from the mountain road through some native bush, past some waterfalls, up to Blyth Hut, which is a hut where walkers (or Trampers, as they're called here) can rest their weary heads for the night. The huts like this are very basic and just have some bunk beds and basic cooking equipment, but they are incredibly peaceful, isolated and quiet. We will stay in some similar huts to this when we do some of the walks in the south island and we look forward to it. The Blyth hut afford some fantastic views all around and we didn't see anyone else on our entire walk. We also walked along a fantastic walkway through some very english looking moorland which made us feel at home.
One day, after skiing, we decided to make the most of one of the Spa pools at Kings. They have 2 available for use, and we hadn't taken the plunge all season. I was a bit sceptical about how great they would be, assuming it is just a glamourised jacuzzi, but I can't express how awesome it was. It was boiling hot, and so utterly relaxing. We both only lasted about 15 minutes in there and were both so floppy and exhausted when we got out. I was definitely converted.
I have continued to make the most of a full kitchen here, and have been making soups aplenty, as well as homemade museli every week and pies/lasagnes/oven-based dishes.
The one thing that has struck us about our time in Ohakune is that we haven't met many people that we have struck a massive bond with. We have made a few friends at work and a good friend in Nic, a girl who works at another lodge in Ohakune who is pretty cool and we will definitely stay in touch with.
Since Carol has booked her flights to New Zealand, we have been getting excited about planning our further adventures in NZ. When we head off from Ohakune, we will head south and hope to do the Queen Charlotte Track around the Marlborough sounds, before heading towards the Abel Tasman region to enjoy the national park there, and then down the west coast to the glaciers (Franz Josef and Fox). That should take us to Queenstown in time for Carol's arrival.
So the plan for the next 2 weeks are just to work as much as possible to earn as much as possible to make up for the loss of earnings with the whole van-dango.
On the 13th/14th/15th October we are currently pencilled to be doing a canoe trip along the Whanganui river with Warwick and Olivia – another couple that we've met here - and after that we hope to head south.
Hoooray. And phew.
