I don't know what was scarier.The moment when I realized that we had lost our brakes, both my feet pressing down onto the floor as hard as I could, our car speeding down a hill in deep fog.
The moment the flame first sparked under the hood on the driver's side of the car, kind of like a pop, followed by our reaction of horror, especially being unable to stop safely at that point.
Or was it the moment when we were finally able to pull off the sealed road and safely transition to the gravel curb (which mind you are few and far between in NZ - so we were lucky) and the monster flame that shot out of the passenger's side hood and alongside Brent's door.
Really, I can't decide what was scarier. It all happened so quickly.
Standing alongside State Highway 8 with Tristan and Brent, waiting for the Fire Brigade to arrive to put out the flames, all you can do is laugh at your situation. This is funny. Cause this is NOT normal.
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 - 6am - 6.30am
It was a cold night. The frost set in. While packing the car to get an early start on the road/day, we quickly realized that the 'wet car' we were looking at was actually frosted over. I have yet to see window scrapers out here in New Zealand. So, we used the next best thing. Fire logs. :)
It's seriously all we could find to scrape the windows clear of the frost. I used my air miles card back home once and destroyed it. All of the plastic cards that we have on us here are far too valuable to lose by scraping off frost. Everyone was sleeping, including the hostel hosts, and the only thing around us was a big pile of logs. That'll do.
So I guess you could say the morning was starting off interestingly enough. Our ghetto snow scrapers. Thick fog, which meant there was no chance to see the mountains today. Sad. We are headed for Wanaka today. Brent wants to visit Puzzling World, which opens at 8.30am so we figured if we left early we could maybe check into a hostel around 9am/10am and be on our way. Simple as pie.
The highway was empty so early in the morning. It was a nice drive. Once we left the town of Lake Tekapo, the fog lifted something incredible. The morning light beaming down on snow capped mountains. The peaks golden in the sun. It was beautiful. I, of course, pulled over to snap pictures that will never capture the true majestic beauty of these peaks, but will help me remember the moment if nothing more.
I thought maybe the day would be clear from here on. Great, because we're driving by the Mt. Cook look out today. That should be wonderful.
But once again, the fog rolled in. We are surrounded by beautiful blue lakes and slightly hilly, partly flat farm land. The highway is a big target for rolling fog. The reality of not seeing the mountains sets in. I'm bummed. But we'll be through this area once again in the summer, once the snow has melted a bit and the park tracks are open again. It's been the worst year for snow here too - which is great if you ski/snowboard, except that the avalanche warnings have been very high this winter/spring and many tracks have been closed.
I was watching my rear view mirror closely as we drove. The people in this country do NOT know how to drive. They will be a mile away, you blink, and BAM they are on your ass. Tail gaiting is like a hobby. But not a very welcome one indeed. And with the fog that we're sitting in, I want as much warning as possible if someone is going to kiss the back end of our car.
Brent was quiet, which isn't unusual in the morning.
Smoke. Puffy white smoke. My eyes' attention was drawn to the rear view mirror.
Is that fog? I quickly glance ahead. There is fog, but it doesn't appear to be that low to the road nor that white.
I'm about to open my mouth to say something to Brent. I think Huntington might be spewing out white smoke. But as quickly as the thought rolls in my head, the smoke stops and we continue to drive away at 70-80km/hr. It now just looks like fog in the mirror.
Is my mind playing tricks on me? Literally, just about to say something to Brent and it suddenly stops. Weird.
Not 30 seconds later, the parking brake light comes on the dash. I check to make sure I'm not losing my mind. The brake isn't actually on.
"Brent, the parking brake light just came on".
This happened to us before on a road in Pureora Forest Park. The dash lights came on and then the car stopped working. The DOC staff members stopped and made sure we were able to start it again before following us out of the park. But we thought we had fixed that problem in New Plymouth when Huntington saw a few doctor and had his surgery. Bought the new speedo, and so far the car was doing okay.
We started to pick up speed as we approached the hill.
We had never had the lights on the dash go on before while driving on the highway. And what was stranger was that it was only the parking brake light. I monitored the dash to see if anything else would light up.
I wanted to pull over to stop the car and at least take a look under the hood of the car.
I go to brake.
Nothing.
I place both feet as hard as I can and floor the brake.
Nothing.
And we're picking up speed, fast!!
We were blessed to be on a smooth windy country road and not a cliff side road. At least the turns weren't as sharp and there is a slight curb where I can pull the car over.
I am really calm in situations where cars are showing distress or in an accident. You have to keep your head on when you're the driver. But this was the first time I had ever lost use of my brakes (which is by far the scariest thing I could have imagined as a driver) and it was the first time I had a passenger with me while experiencing this scale of a car problem.
I calmly told Brent that I had lost the use of the brakes and told him everything would be okay, which is hard to convince someone when you're picking up speed down a hill you've never driven on before, in fog, in a country known for its windy roads that could be what's coming up but you don't know cause you have never driven this road.
He was worried, but stayed calm, because if anything, that's what I needed. I figured that we would just ride out the car until it slowed down, at which point I could pull us over safely onto gravel while using the hand brake.
A pop sound. Really close to me. That's when the first flame shot out from under the hood of the car. Straight at the windshield and up.
We both screamed "AH" in surprise. It was a shock reaction. You don't expect to see flames hopping out of a car. Especially while you're driving. The reality of the situation set in immediately.
Screw this, is all I'm thinking. I pulled the emergency brake as hard as I could and prayed that it would be enough to pull us over. What if the emergency brake doesn't work, we'll have to ride out the speed and then crash the car into the farm land somewhere, into a ditch. I have scenarios running through my head because you have to brace yourself for what you might have to do to get out of this situation.
Thank you hand brake. It starts to slow us down, at least enough that I can pull off the highway a bit. You have to remember that with the fog, and our inability to brake - our brake lights don't work and if we drop too much speed, someone could come up quickly from behind. I have a feeling the kiwis don't drive to road conditions here, or at least that's the impression they are definitely leaving with Brent and myself.
We wait for the car to come to a complete stop, but it's taking its time. That's fine, I'm thinking, maybe that spark and flame was a one time thing.
Before the car stopped moving, a giant flame shoots out of the front of the car. I don't know if it was from the hood or from underneath the mud-flap area. But it was big and it shot alongside Brent's door and window. Brent leaned into me in horror, while I sat there in shock. What the hell is going on?? What the F*@K is going on!?!?!?
Seriously?
I have to get the car to stop before we jump out. Trying to calm Brent and trying to stay calm myself I tell him that he is not allowed to go out of his door. That he will jump over to my side and exit this way.
Finally, no movement. I fling open the door, grab Claude off the dashboard and jump out making sure that Brent is close behind. We run across the street. Safe out of the car.
I'm just staring at the car. Smoke is pouring out from underneath of the hood. Under the car you can see little flames on the road. Something must have burnt and then fallen off the car and is now sitting on the road. I can see fluids dripping onto whatever is burnt on the ground.
Reality sets in. This car is not going to stop burning.
"Brent. The car is going to go up in flames. I don't think the fire is out. We have to get everything out of the car, NOW!"
Whatever was wrong with the car is probably only going to get worse. That's all you can think. We run back across the road and quickly grab one thing and then run across the street far from the car. You had to go in and get the hell out stat, cause we had no idea what was going on. My mind is racing through all the Hollywood movies and reality tv stories I've ever seen. What if the car blows up?? How does that even happen?? I have no idea what a car in flames looks like, nor how it reacts. I'm not taking any chances.
There was one point where Brent was at the car digging for something and I felt like he was in the car for too long and it was freaking me out. Like you sit along the road and picture the worst situation. Then you picture a person you love with their head in the situation when it happens.
The flames were cooking under the hood. You could hear them and see them through the front tires. We had very little time to get everything out. If our gear stays in the car, we lose everything.
I grabbed the last important items from the trunk, a box and the white gas for our stove (like the fire needs any more fuel!), leaving behind a broken funnel, wet roll of toilet paper that has been living in the trunk soaking up water, some newspaper, and I think that's it. Ran across the street to drop it off with our pile. Suddenly a person runs into my line of vision from across the road. He looks back to me while standing at the back door of our car. "Did you get everything?"
I never saw him pull up.
"Yes, thank you, we're okay. Well, our stuff is okay. Thank you."
Tristan Leov. A gentleman who works for John Deere and overseas production and sales in the whole of the south island. Driving through the area from Fairlie (which is east of Lake Tekapo), heading to an appointment further down the highway. Pulled over to make sure we were okay.
Once we were both across the street with Tristan, car as empty as we could make it, still thinking we lost something underneath the seats, we simply watched helplessly as the front end of the car burned up. Trying to call our insurance company, who were NOT OPEN before 8.30am. Calling as soon as we got everything out safely and pulled out the insurance paperwork. Closed. So NOT something we would ever run into in Canada.
Tristan asked if he could help in any way. He offered to call the police from his mobile, while Brent and I tried to get a hold of the insurance company. With Tristan on police duty, we called AA, our roadside service, to find out about towing. I mean, once this car is put out we'll need to get it somewhere.
All the while, I'm out documenting the events with my camera. I mean, is this ever going to happen in my life again? Hopefully not. So I might as well have really great pictures/video while its happening. Cause this is like the epitome of our trip - nothing normal ever happens. You don't wake up in the morning and expect your car to simply go up in flames.
A giant two tank tanker truck pulls up alongside the road in the opposite direction. A gentleman by the name of Mario comes walking out of the fog (such a great movie shot) with his fire extinguisher in hand and straight up to our car, blasting it with an entire giant canister. It looked like it was having some sort of effect on the fire. But then the extinguisher ran out, and the flames ripped out from under the tires once again.
"Don't worry, I have more", he shouts to us as he returns to his truck.
Three full extinguishers later, nothing. The fire was too hot and with the hood closed, you couldn't access what is probably the culprit of the fire anyway. "I'm sorry", Mario exclaims as he approaches me. "Please don't be sorry, thank you so much for trying to put it out." We all stood by and watched. Mario pulled out his camera phone to snap a photo. Cause you don't see this too often, if ever in person...maybe on the news. That's what Tristan said too.
Helpless. Three fire extinguishers couldn't save the car. Mario set up pylons on the road to try to slow down drivers and control traffic. The oil from the car was spilling across the road. Mario's truck was empty, which meant that the tanks were full of flammable vapours. He couldn't pass our car until the fire was put out completely.
Many drivers slowed down as they passed by us asking if we needed any help, and also to make sure everyone was out of the car. I would hope we weren't standing across the road staring at the flames knowing there was someone inside. The concern was welcome.
The windows were black. The fire must have been so hot inside the car. The smoke and fire blackening the inside. Tristan called it the best tint job ever. Seriously, people would pay big bucks for the tinting that our windows were producing.
The popping tires and blown out windows. Those are the sounds that you remember. The tires would be on fire for a long time before finally blowing open, it was surreal. The windows popped open, but only after being cooked by the flames and heat long enough. Melting. They sounded like broken ornaments. They sounded thin and so very fragile when they finally shattered one by one.
Mario directed traffic for us. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Just walking around the car (at a safe distance) in awe of the situation. Tristan didn't want to leave us until he knew we were okay. He didn't want us to be stranded on the side of the road. It's not a heavily traveled highway.
It took the fire brigade approximately 45 minutes to arrive on scene. New Zealand is largely run on volunteer fire brigades. 14,000 men and women volunteer to serve their townships and areas. Only the big cities actually have their own fire and ambulance services. In the towns, which is MOST of NZ, it's all volunteers. I remember hearing the sirens for the fire brigade in Raglan and in Taumarunui. It's eerie to hear the sound across the towns. But vital for those towns who rely on this service. Someone explained once that they sound the siren, and whoever gets to the station first, responds to the fire/emergency. I think it's like the first 5 people or something. There is a really great system that has worked well for small townships for years.
When they showed up, the highway was closed off as they had to cut across the entire road. It's only two lanes wide. Five gentlemen were on site. The hose came out pretty quickly, but it didn't matter anymore, the car was deep into flames by the time they were able to arrive.
It took a while to extinguish the flames. Even once it looked finished, they had to open the hood and the trunk to hose it down some more, just in case. The smoke was thick. This car was cooked. Pipping hot. All the drivers who were pulled over while the brigade was on site ran out of their cars to take photographs of the events.
It's just sad. Poor Sir Huntington III. Didn't last more than a month and 5 days with us.
At least we bought that $75.00 'fire and theft extension' on our insurance policy. Tristan took a look at our policy. "QBE, they're a great company to be with". Who would have thought we had the best insurance company in NZ. We purchased our insurance through BBH, because it was the cheapest option (otherwise we were looking at ridiculous amounts of money). We purchased 3rd party insurance - which means if you are in a crash, your insurance will pay for the other person's damage (hope they have 3rd party too, cause then your car will be repaired), and then the fire & theft extention. Not that we thought we would EVER have to use it. But it came as a royal blessing. We were out our dear car, but maybe we would be okay. The car was purchased for $2045 with WOF (warrant of fitness), plus the $750-$1,000 we put into it with labour and parts at three places. And ta da, burnt rubble. But we should be able to make up the $2000, since we have it valued at that with our insurance policy. We'll see. We're praying everything turns up okay.
The firemen opened the road again but set up blockades further down on each end. People zip through the area at high speeds. And considering how much fog there still was on the road, it was a real hazard. Only one lane was open. I went to take a photograph from one fireman's point of view and he told me to be careful because people zip around corners like mad around here. Snapped the photo. And it was no more then 10 seconds that I crossed back onto the curb that a car sped up to the blockade so fast while another car was given the okay to come through the one lane. The fireman had to run in front of the speeding car to get it to slam on its brakes. Stupid drivers.
They moved the blockade out much further after that one car almost took out the blockade.
Once the fire was out, Mario was able to drive by once again. He took down all our information. Since he used 3 fire extinguishers on our car, he had to write up a report. I'll gladly sign that one. I think he had one extinguisher left in his cab, but by law has to keep it in his truck. And quite frankly I'm glad he had a spare, cause he's in the flammable vehicle!!!!
I forgot to mention that AA dicked us around and basically said 'well, since your car is on fire, we can't help you'. This is actually quite a long part of the story, which I won't get into on the blog. We purchased roadside assistance from AA, and you know AFTER the fire is put out, I would expect that we could use one of our towing times on this situation. After we were safely in a town, I had to deal with speaking to AA and one woman said that since we had already put in a claim with our insurance, they could no longer help us - but it's like 'why wouldn't i call my insurance company??' - but none the less, they pretty much cut Brent off on the phone and that pissed me off. They said had we not spoken to our insurance they would have helped us - yet they were called before we could get through to our insurance. So much frustration, so little time to deal with it.
On and off we would have conversations with the men of the fire brigade, answering as many questions as we could. We didn't know what started the fire. It literally just started, and never stopped. One gentleman informed me that he called for a vehicle recovery and that the pile of metal would be picked up and that we didn't have to worry about anything.
Except for the bill I would say.
Everyone was so nice. Small town people. Laid back, but doing their job. I asked one of the firemen about how volunteering worked when they all carry full time jobs as well. When they hear the siren, they have to leave work. It's that simple. Without the volunteers, this country would have a lot of problems. But because its volunteers in the towns, I think that's why you get a lot more people pulling over and stopping to help, cause they know they could be the first responder on site and maybe the only help someone might get. It takes a long time to get the volunteers on site, especially when you are in between towns.
Tristan was wonderful. He didn't want to leave until we were safely in a town. The tow truck drivers asked if we needed a lift into town, and Tristan volunteered to drive us. We got the information from the tow truck guys about where they were taking the car and Tristan helped us load his Holden (a brand of car that Brent and I dub the lexus of NZ) and drove us to Twizel. A town that was never meant to stay standing. I don't remember what it was built for, workers of the dams perhaps. It was meant to be torn down in 1973, but with much hesitation from the locals. The government decided not to tear it down, and they started to expand. Today, the population sits at about 1300. But funny enough, we later found out in Wanaka as I looked through a LOTR location book and tour guide pamphlet (no, we're not interested in wasting our money on these tours) that TWIZEL is a HOT SPOT for LOTR tours. A chunk of the movies were shot out in the area, which makes sense as it's pretty barren, tussock-like and mountainous.
Driving away from the scene, we crossed paths with a second fire truck. The first one's tank was running low. We were 'big news' for Twizel. If they had local news, we would have probably been on it. :)
In the car, Tristan said we were with a good bunch of people. He overheard one of the tow truck drivers asking if any of the firemen had a car they knew that was for sale. They knew we needed to replace our now defunct car, and they were already working away at finding us options.
We unpacked all our belongings at Rex Miller Engineering Ltd. in Twizel. Tristan left us his address and phone number and told us to call him if for any reason we are stranded out here. He would drive from Fairlie and take us home. "It's only an hour away", he said. Amazing. Some of the people we have had the pleasure to meet blow our minds. We shook hands, and he was off, very late for his appointment, but glad to help.
First order of business, outside answering all the mechanics at the shop's questions about the car, was microwaving two "Cookie Time" cookies that we bought at the factory just outside of Christchurch. Took our heated up cookies outside the shop and just let the reality of our day sink in. We were stranded. In Twizel. A town we might have gased up in.
The people at Rex Miller were amazing. I mean, we took over their staff room with all of our belongings (small room) and they made sure we were as comfortable as possible. They let us use their spare phone to get in touch with our insurance and to let me deal with stupid AA. The tow cost us $250 and I needed someone at AA to explain the fine print that must be in our terms and conditions (which there isn't - it's just they messed up, but we want that $250 recovered). We had the insurance claim form faxed over to our attention at the mechanics and I sat down and filled it out and faxed it back straight away. And now we wait for an adjuster to call to tell us the car is a total loss (obvious) and break whatever news about "market value" they need to indicate to us...which is where we're probably going to get screwed in making back our $2000.
Stranded. What are our options? It's not like there's a bus/train stop in Twizel. Tour buses drive by on the highway, but that's about it for the town. We thought maybe we could leave our stuff somewhere and get to a bigger city/town so that we could find another car, come back, pick up our stuff and be on our way.
Our car makes it back to the lot. Hoisted on a flatbed tow truck. Nothing but metal. What wasn't attached to the car any longer was shoveled into the inside of the car (to clean it from the road). Incredible. It's truly something else to see what a car can burn to. I mean, I've seen burnt out cars before, but never to this degree and never my own car. To know what it looked like hours before...it's insane!
Victor, one of the gentlemen who towed our car and works at the mechanics, mentioned that he was fixing up a car for his granddaughter and said that we could have it for $500 if we wanted. "But what about your grandaughter??", I asked. "Oh, don't worry, we have plenty of cars around here, there's a Mitsubishi in the back that I can fix up by Christmas. It's a Christmas present you see." John, a hilarious bloke that works there, said that coming up with cars is an occupational hazard. They just pop up everywhere. They get old useless cars to fix them up. Usually pass them onto family members/friends who need a car, I would say.
We thought, okay.
Victor told us to give it a go around the block to see if we liked it. Okay.
Brent and I, after looking at all our options and after trying to figure out with AA if they would honour our one policy where they will tow you to any city of your choice and either rent you a car for three days or put you up in a hotel (this was the argument we were going through with AA, since this would have been a situation that we would have asked for this option, especially since we were stranded - again it's long and complicated to explain how this AA story fits into our fire situation, but it makes sense, trust me) - once we realized they weren't going to come through, we understood this car might be our only option.
We get into the car and sit down, buckle in.
Stop.
I can't drive this.
Brent looks at me. "It's a stick. I can't drive manual."
We get out of the car and back into the garage. "Hey Victor... got any other cars for sale?"
"Why, what's wrong with this one?"
"I can't drive a stick."
He looks at Brent. "What about you?"
"I don't have my license"
Victor hits his head with his hand, as if saying 'what's wrong with you people - you can't drive stick and a boy can't drive, this is so backwards. He spent about 2 minutes running through how to drive a standard and said I could figure it out. "You want me to try it on your car?? Now??"
"Yeah. Manual cars are forgiving. You'll figure it out."
Okay. Here we go. Driving on the left hand side of the road, with crazy ass drivers. And NOW, I'm going to add the whole realm of learning how to drive a stick to the wonderful pile of driving fun. Sure.
This is funny. I mean, I have friends who have had standard cars, but I've never driven one before. I think I drove an ex-bf's truck once in a parking lot, and when I made it sound funny going from 1st to 2nd gear, he kicked me out of the driver's seat. But I used to shift the gears in my friend Marc's car all the time when I was a passenger. He would push down the clutch and tell me to shift and it would be my job to change the gear. Perfect. I was a passenger in North America, where the gear shifter was to my left. I'm a driver in New Zealand where the gear shifter is to my left. At least I have that down. How hard could this be.
First, we reverse. Smooth and slow. Next, just gotta get it into 1st gear.
Rrrrrrrr. ppppppfffffff
Stall.
Number one.
Let's try that again.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Pppppppppppppppppfffffffff
Stall.
Number two.
Mind you, the car is butt out in the middle of the road right now. Not that it's a busy town, but for some reason a lot of bigger trucks are using this side road. Argh.
I send Brent into the shop after a third stall. Someone has to get this car off the road, and it's clearly not going to be me. Victor and Brent turn the corner and Vic looks at me. "I can't get the car off the road", I exclaim. "Here, get in, I'll teach you."
We drive down a long stretch of road and he walks me through all the steps I need to follow with the car. Giving me inside tips that I couldn't repeat to you now, I was barely retaining the important information. I was sitting there realizing that I had no choice but to learn how to drive this car, because it was our only way out of Twizel. If we wanted to leave today, this was it.
Victor pulls over. "Now you try."
I don't remember if I stalled it. But it was funny. I wasn't fast about anything. We successfully made our way back to the shop, and that was my 5 minute stick shift lesson. That's it, that's all.
Back at Rex Miller, we signed the papers. We had to. This was our option. It was an option - which was more than we had once we got off the phone with AA. Could make for an interesting adventure.
By 12.46pm, we were on our way. Packed up the new car and heading for Wanaka, where we will now spend 2 nights. We weren't going to make it to Puzzling World until tomorrow, that's for sure.
We pulled out of the mechanics and parked just off the highway in a carpark. We ate lunch as we waited to get a hold of our insurance company. I called around 12.40pm to change the vehicle information on our policy, so that this new car was insured and the receptionist said I had to call back around 1.15pm since everyone was at lunch. Another situation I don't think I have ever ran into in Canada. People generally take staggered lunches back home, but here it's like the entire office clears out all at once. Too strange.
We didn't want to get onto the highway until we knew we were covered. Let's be honest, I am driving a stick for the first time in my life and I'm not going to do that without covering our asses.
The drive the Wanaka was interesting. You could call it that. The highway stuff was okay. You just get it up to 5th gear and then you're cruising. Downshift every once and a while to 4th while you come around the sharper corners. I think the first time I tried to downshift to get down to 50kms/hr as we entered a city, I missed the gear and ran into problems, and a bus pulled up right behind us and almost kissed our new car. I pulled over to let traffic go by. I had no idea what I was doing. I think I put it into 2 instead of 4 and then 1 instead of 3. SUE ME - I'm new at this. I'm paranoid about driving and accidentally going from 3rd to Reverse and killing the car and the transmission.
Driving into Wanaka sucked cause we missed a street and I took the next street to turn around. That was a mistake. It was a cul de sac on a down hill, with people hanging outside. So I had to do a 3 point turn with spectators for the first time in a stick on a HILL. From reverse to 1st, I couldn't get the car to stop rolling back. I was so stressed out. This is stressful shit here!!! I just gunned the gas and screeched the tires back up hill, probably leaving tire tracks on the road. Sweet. :)
Once that baby was parked outside that hostel, I was not willing to move it unless 150% necessary. I was not enjoying the moment.
Now, as I type this 3 days after the accident, driving a manual car is starting to be fun. Brent and I high five anytime I get it into 3rd with no problems - either shifting up or down. Cause for some reason, that's the hardest gear for me. I applaud myself when I am able to down shift properly through a round a bout and up a hill. I need the encouragement right now to get me through the learning stage. It's sad, I'm sure. Especially for all those reading this who do know how to drive a manual car.
I even drove it up a steep as crap hill yesterday in Oamaru. And it worked really well.
Mind you, I have stalled it a few times, and I don't always get it in the right gear and I have run into another situation on the highway yesterday when we were going uphill and I lost all my speed (from 100 down to like 40kms/hr) and a bus was on our ass right away, and all I wanted to do was down shift to the right gear in order to get the car to pick up speed again, but the bus didn't know I was going to lose all my speed (nor did I) and when you down shift you don't use your brake so there is no warning. Ahhhh that was horrible. But other then that, everything's been super. :)
And today, we're off to Dunedin - which actually has the STEEPEST STREET IN THE WORLD. I already told Brent if he accidentally navigated me onto that street and I had to drive upwards, that I would pull over and he would have to find someone to do it for me.
Good times in New Zealand.
But huge thank yous to Tristan - for all of your time, jokes and kindness. Mario for doing all you could to help out and being so kind to us - he called us up later on (we provided him with our mobile for his report) to make sure we were okay and to see if there was anything he could do for us - AMAZING. The volunteer fire brigade (one member of the team was actually at Rex Miller when we were pulling out, so I had an opportunity to thank him once again) who finished the job. All the people at Rex Miller who made our 4 hours with them entertaining, enjoyable and relaxing (as much as possible given the circumstance).
Thank you God for protecting us through the ordeal.
Maybe it was for the best. This car was never meant to go beyond Lake Tekapo apparently.
And let's be honest, if you are ever going to lose your car, this had to have been the most spectacular way to see your car die. And in the grand scheme of things, it's almost a better thing that our car died in a fire as we are only insured for 3rd party, fire and theft. I think the "fire & theft extension" was, in our situation, worth its weight in gold.
And really, all we could do was laugh at our situation. Why I thought things would be smooth and run normal for us is beyond me. Our claim is underway. Who knows what will happen with that now.
As of now, it's good bye $3000 Sir Huntington III.
And hello $500 car.
May we present to you:
Sgt. McClaughwd
The spelling of our new car is inspired by NZ's use of multiple consonants in some of their words (not only Maori words) and acronyms like EFTPOS. Proper pronunciation of said car's name is: Sargent McCloud :)
Toyota Corona, circa 1985.
It took us a long time to name him while driving. I liked the idea of calling it Lieutenant something, then Brent upgraded the car to Sargent. It took us a long time to come up with anything. McClaughwd was decided upon at one point and then the spelling was discussed further for several kilometers and well into the night.
We like it. And it's a good little car. I guess. I wouldn't know any differently. Our KIA looked like a luxury backpacker's car almost. This car has the classic 'shit box' look we expected to purchase in New Zealand. I guess we were always meant to have it this way.
It's funny, I really did think that my next blog would be about the southern alps. The mountains are so gorgeous and we have had some magnificent views of these majestic beauties. Day in and day out while driving, we have seen some great panoramic sights. All attempted to be captured on camera, nothing will come close to living it yourself. Driving in a valley of tussock land with the snow capped beauties all around you. It's a magnificent moment. And we are blessed to be able to drive this for the next few months while we live in the south island.
Let's pray that Sgt. McClaughwd stands up to our trip and that my skills as a manual driver pick up quickly. :)
Should be a fun and steep learning curve.
6ish weeks into the trip now.
What's next?
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