New Zealand 34 Our Gypsy Van

I can only imagine what the people in the other camper vans must be thinking, truly, our gypsy van must glow for miles. It is hard not to laugh when you are walking back to the van from the restroom in the middle of the night and you see the van bursting from every crevice with a warm glow.

It seems we are operating some sort of 70s disco inside.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 33 - It GLOWS All Night

 We spent the evening in a very nice family-run park in a farm setting. It was quite tranquil.....and then we plugged in our new heater. Now, I will say straight away that this heater will warm up a joint (any joint) in about 5 minutes flat. 

 It is hot and, I think, quite a fire hazard. But when you are cold (and we were) you tend to ignore the obvious. But the funny thing is, the halogen lamp heater is SO bright- it literally GLOWS all night long.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

 New Zealand 32 Marlborough Sound - Decided Against It

We discussed doing the Queen Charlotte Track, supposedly a very easy walk around Marlborough Sound but decided against it because all of the places to stay along the way were quite expensive and the area was expecting a great deal of rain.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 31 Wineries

 
We arrived in Picton, South Island and went straight to the Visitor Centre to get pamphlets on the various Great Walks. Apparently, the Tongariro experience wasn't enough for us. We headed out onto a very scenic drive towards the wine district so that we could check out a few wineries tomorrow.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 30

 We checked out very early but not before spending an hour discussing the varied postage one must pay "for the exact same item" shipped from various destinations via Ebay purchase. We were also both educated on the "proper way" to package porcelain figurines when preparing for long distance shipments. UGH!!!! 

Anyway, we booked our passage to the south island this morning via ferry and were excited to get back into the countryside. Our ferry left at 2pm so we had awhile to see a bit more of Wellie- we decided to make our way over to Parliament and the official district. Took a few pics and then made our way to the ferry landing. The weather was not too good so we spent most of the 3 hour ferry ride below deck reading and sleeping. Arrived in Picton, South Island well rested and anxious to get on our way.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 29

 We reluctantly went back to our room and very quietly (so as not to alert Joe of our presence) made a hasty retreat to the Mongolian BBQ. It was pretty good, though not really as good as it could have been for obvious reasons. You see, it's one of those restaurants where you choose all of the ingredients and spices/seasonings for your dish and the chef grills it right in front of you. Matt and I are both awful cooks so.... you get the point. Still, it was a nice (late) evening.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 28 Really Cold

We finally got into the city and went to the "Te Papa" museum first. They had a special exhibit on Egyptian mummies that looked interesting so I went to the exhibit while Matt (who had no interest in aforementioned) went through the usual tour sections. After the museum, we walked around town to several of the local shops and the main drag, Cuba Street, where we ate lunch at a yummy Turkish kebab place. I had a pair of pearl earrings handmade while Matt waited patiently. We also bought a halogen lamp heater (strange that neither one of us knew that halogen meant it was a bright, glowing lamp...but I will get to this later). We knew the south island would be really cold and the $10 blanket we bought was not going to cut it.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued)