Te Anau, 20 to 23 December 2008

This page is dedicated to our dear friend and mentor

Silver (1937 - 2008).

20 December 2008

13:15 (258205kms): on our way to Te Anau, for Silver's funeral. So this is going to be a short blog, as it's a very sad occasion and it's not your normal Maggie adventure. But thanks to Maggie, we have a place to stay and can take the dogs with us, so she makes it so much easier. Absolutely pouring and a miserable 8 degrees. Stopped in Cromwell and filled up with diesel (62L, 258229kms). Also stopped in Frankton to see if they have any car seat covers at The Warehouse (none in stock) and to let the dogs have a run. Arrived Te Anau 16:49 and met Chris at Simon's, on whose driveway we are parking for the night (thanks Simon!!!!). After a beer, we headed off to the Ranch to meet up with the rest of the Sinclair family - really sad, but really cool at the same time. Got home at 23:15.

21 December 2008

Marielle up at 07:15 to take dogs for a walk - Mike finally up at just after 09:00 (which is hardly surprising given that it was a big night after finishing night shift yesterday!). Had breakfast inside at Simon's and went round to help clean house and gardens at Silver and Jess's place. Then we left the family to it and went and parked up at Queen's Reach for the night - in the spot we found last time but which was occupied - absolutely beautiful. Had a fish, but mainly sat and reminisced and talked. Met a couple who were jetboating and fishing, and then a couple of fishermen from Dunedin - meant a late-ish tea and we didn't hit the pit until 23:00.

22 December 2008

Up at 06:30, had showers and chilled for a bit and just as we were getting ready to leave Kirsty rung to say she was already in Te Anau. Met her and had breakfast at The Sandfly cafe, then got ready to go to the funeral. Very tough afternoon, followed by a mixture of happiness and sadness at The Ranch. Marielle got home just before 23:00 - Kirsty followed sometime later (she doesn't remember much!) and Mike stumbled in at 02:30.

23 December 2008

Left Te Anau 12:26 (258482kms). Arrived home 16:40.

Queenstown, 5 to 8 December 2008

5 December 2008
09:30, 257935kms. Weather glorious – off to somewhere to get to Queenstown by tomorrow afternoon for the Contact Energy Christmas do. 10:58 – stopped in Cromwell to try and buy a ski mirror (none to be found!), to get the new registration label for Maggie (didn’t arrive in time) and to have breakfast along the lake shore. Nice and warm but the wind is picking up (bloody wind!!). 13:12 – stopped at Remarkables Park Shopping Centre at Frankton to get more Inca Gold (toilet chemicals) and treated ourselves to lunch at Thaitanium YUM, YUM, YUM!! 15:03 – been to Repco to buy a couple of bits and pieces and then to Hansen’s Auto Services, who are the Mercedes specialists, to see if they can shed some light on our engine rattle. Spent over an hour there, have to be back Monday as the fan belt that has just been replaced is the wrong size (4mm too long) and 2 idler pulleys are too loose and need to be replaced. But no-one is sure if this will actually fix the rattle! Also found out that the alternator doesn’t rotate in both directions, which it’s meant to. 15:39 Set up at 12 Mile Delta, beside Lake Wakatipu, along the road to Glenorchy and about 10kms from Queenstown. Beautiful spot with awesome views but windy – cold wind!- and sandflies!!!! Reasonably sheltered though, and alternating sun/cloud. Watched lots of other people come and go, in particular one pair of clowns who parked their camper on such an angle we worried they might come out through the front of the Luton during the night! How they slept at all is beyond us. Also met Tim and Rachel, from Cambridge, UK, who are on their OE and pitched their tent beside us. Invited them in for a beer, and then dinner. We were having spaghetti and Mike’s famous meat balls, and they had some mince too so offered to contribute that. Well, we didn’t use it and our good deed for the day was saving them from food-poisoning, as their mince was off!! Realised when we’d finished tea that it was 23:30! So they left, we did dishes and hit the pit at 00:09! Housekeeping: we seem to be having a few problems with the house battery - nothing major - but it keeps dropping to low battery warning quite quickly - we haven't had this before. Also only shows 75% charged, even after driving to Queenstown. Whether this has something to do with alternator, or the battery, we don't know.

6 December 2008
Awake at 07:45, glorious day after cooler night – 9 degrees when we got up. Not a cloud in the sky, but wind threatening – again! Plan is to take dogs for long walk, make our way to Coronet Plaza at Arthur’s Point and have shower etc in our hotel room before going to the do. 12:02 258046kms. Leaving 12 Mile Delta after walking dogs around the Delta. Crossed a wee stream at the start, Mike got across safe and dry, Marielle over-balanced and got her feet, socks, shoes and jeans rather wet – thank god it’s a nice day! We’ve had a full cooked breakfast, and helped Tim and Rachel again, by letting them use our cell-phone to call the AA as their car won’t go after the alarm went off. Got to Coronet Plaza about 13:15, had showers (crap!) and got ready for the bowling, which lasted from 15:30 ‘til 17:30. Fed and watered dogs (had taken them for a few “out of Maggie” breaks all afternoon), then off to dinner. Marielle put dogs to bed on Maggie at 22:39 and then went to bed herself, in the hotel room – so even though we weren’t sleeping on Maggie, she was still being used! Mike followed sometime after midnight. We had a good night!

7 December 2008
Up at 7:30 – well, Marielle was, Mike emerged for a coffee and smoke about 08:00 then went back to bed! Left the hotel about 9:30, had breakfast at Brazzas, then out to Frankton to see Kirsty, who was also in QT last night for her works’ Xmas do. Then off to 12 Mile Delta again. Got there at 12:31 and had relaxing afternoon – enjoying some lovely weather, fishing, reading etc. Both a bit tired after late nights/early mornings, and after we’d had a few drinks and dinner (Thai green curry) we were both ready for bed – at 20:30!!!

8 December 2008
Good night’s sleep, apart from the fact that Mike woke up at 01:00 and couldn’t get back to sleep because he’d gone to bed too early!! Up at 07:00, 9⁰C, raining and getting heavier, but no worries this time as we know we can get out of here! Had breakfast (muesli and yoghurt) and left at 8:28 to go into Queenstown to have the fanbelt etc fixed. Got to Hansen Auto Services at 9:28 and then sat reading our books while the bits and pieces were replaced. Yay – the rattle has gone! And the house battery has charged to full again. Still raining so we are not unhappy about going home. Got home at 13:06 (258204kms) after stopping in Cromwell to do some shopping. Still raining!

Kane Road, Hawea 2 to 4 December 2008

2 December 2008
11:43, 257779kms. Off to Kane Road, between Luggate and Hawea Flat, to park beside the Clutha River. It’s an area Mike heard about from the guys at work, land owned by Contact Energy – so no hassles with land owners or anything. Weather forecast for odd shower this afternoon, maybe thunder, but we’re off! Filled diesel (42.93L, 257804kms) and gas at BP Cromwell, did shopping at New World and called in to say hi to Kirsty. The odd quite heavy shower coming through, but also blue sky in distance – fingers crossed! 12:55 Leaving Cromwell. 15:03 – parked up where we’d planned, but it took a lot of effort to get here – the tomahawk was put to good use scrub clearing to make track wide enough for Maggie – and still we scratched the side of her quite badly! Mike buggered, a little tomahawk on some fairly decent pine tree branches took a bit of energy! Set up camp and spent rest of afternoon relaxing, although Mike did continue with the tomahawk (must have got the lumberjack bug) as he proceeded to cut down a small poplar and a big willowtree branch that were stopping the sun from getting through! Mad!!! Had tea (mini chicken roast, broccoli and special fried rice) and then did the dishes – as we always do – and then wondered what the awful, awful smell was. Poor old JD got blamed for letting one rip, but it was worse than that. Then it dawned – we hadn’t emptied the grey tank from last trip ‘til this morning, and it did smell a bit when we emptied it. But, as soon as I pulled the plug from the sink, the smell from the tank came up through the shower plug hole – and boy did it pong – honestly smelt like something had died. So dissolved a bio-pak toilet chemical sachet in sink and let it go into grey. Lesson for future - empty the grey on the last day!! Both tired – Mike knackered – and in bed at 21:00. Oh, we had one heavy shower just after we set up camp, and thought “here we go!” but it only lasted about 10 minutes, sun came out again and beautiful afternoon, apart from stiff NW wind.

3 December 2008
Up at 07:00 – sunny out, 13⁰ but still blowing. Oh yeah, we gave up on worming – only thing we caught was heaps of didymo. Very deceptive, as unlike other places there is no sign of it on surface, but obviously in the depths it’s there – in bucket loads! Yuck. Now 08:50, have had breakfast (muesli and yoghurt) and now contemplating what to do for rest of morning – fish, read, go back to bed??? Oh, life’s tough! 13:03 – Have pretty much done all of the above, now moving to another spot a bit further upstream because the fishing is no good here, and because the forecast is for showers tonight and we want to get past the boghole before that happens. And a change of scenery never goes amiss! 13:21 – parked up in new spot, after doing some more scrub cutting to get here. Nice and sunny, and sheltered from the ever present howling NW. Mike reading, Marielle went for a fish and caught a big one – for about 2 seconds – it literally jumped 3 feet out of the water the moment it struck, and jumped straight off the hook! Met another fisherman, who had seen Maggie parked up and thought we were mad, bringing a campervan down this track! Mike also had a fish, and same thing happened to him – caught one minute, off the next! Spent rest of afternoon reading and fishing, and eating way too many chips – so many, neither of us felt like tea! Had a few drinks, and obviously a few too many, because Mike turned the motor on to charge up the batteries, and also turned the heating on - to the point where it got all of a sudden got awfully hot inside, and Marielle felt very unwell and went to bed before it even remotely got dark!

4 December 2008
Marielle awake before sunrise, thanks to it starting to rain. Then woke up several more times as the rain got progressively heavier and heavier, and at 6am woke Mike up because it was really pee-ing down to the point where we thought we should move to higher, and harder ground. A couple of wee slips getting up the track, and almost got stuck in a boghole because Marielle sent Mike the wrong way (OOPS!) but Maggie got us out safely. Left camp at 6:31, home just after 7:30. Still raining heavily and when we turned on the TV we discovered there are heavy rain warnings out – so much for the weather forecasts on Classic Hits – they told us yesterday there would be a few showers! So glad we left. Will wait to see what happens with weather during rest of today before we decide what we are going to do – stay at home for the day and try again tomorrow, or maybe move somewhere tonight?