The Great Final New Zealand Expedition Part 0

Well it had to happen. Not only is my time running out here in New Zealand, but so are the places in the country I haven't been too.

As of this weekend I can sadly and happily say, I have ventured and seen my last (easily accessible) NZ frontier.

Not that this epic undertaking did not have an equally epic start.

I've decided to split the trip up into parts. Today you get horrific start of it all. The only photo you get is of this amusing NZ traffic sign we saw on day 2. The morning of day 1 was among my least fun days in NZ, and so there are no photos of these events...

The quick backstory on the trip, of all the few places I haven't seen in NZ, the only one that has held any appeal has been the west coast of the South Island. Due to its remote access (there are only 3 ways to get to it) slight distance from Dunedin, and lack of civilization I had never been able to convince any of my past travel companions to venture that far off the beaten trail. Yet it sat there, within a day's reach (a full day mind you) of where I sit now. How could I not go before I leave the country?

After many times of talking ourselves in and out of a trip, due to limited financial and temporal resources, Lady R and I finally agreed on a romantic get away to the coast for a weekend. With exams and a new job in Lady R's remaining time here, and term 4 off to a roaring start (I have 4 days in the FIRST week back to skool already!) there really wasn't any chance but this last weekend. So we pegged ALL hope on it...

There is a saying about putting all your eggs in one basket. Though I think the saying should really be changed to something about backpacks into 20 year old cars... Point is my friend Will's law "Nature tends toward maximum irony" came into full effect the morning of the trip.

Planning to take a leisurely trip up to the coast, we had banked on leaving Dunedin by 8am. We woke up, packed the car, and were ready to go. Early no less! When I turned on the car nothing happened... I mean literally nothing.

The old junkered had decided of anyday it was going to die it was on THIS day! (It has plenty of other chances!!!)

Saving the long rant version of the story, I managed to get the car towed (at big expensive) to a mechanic. Fearing the worst (in terms of $), my car managed to pull a my car... I love this car to bits, don't get me wrong. Even if it is an ancient tempermental thing... it has always been predictable in its troubles. The battery. In this case the wiring to this key part had fallen apart. Which cost next to nothing to fix!

This whole misadventure however cost us another crucial thing in addition to money. Time. We have so little of it here, and with the number of things we wanted to see on the latter end of the first day we would be cutting it short leaving at that point in the afternoon.

I have felt more defeated and depressed then I did on Saturday (that incident is classified though, and only Camp Team EXTREME ppl will know what I'm talking about), but this was close. After 30 minutes sourly pouring over our defeat, I (with a push from Clare) declared we were going.

With this ridiculously shortened launch window we set off... The story improves from here

Stay tuned for parts 1-3 this week.