Esther's world trip
Esther's world trip
vakantio.de/esther-around-the-world

A roadtrip around the South Island

Veröffentlicht: 15.02.2019

The past 17 days have been quite adventurous in various respects. 

I had hooked up with a Dutch girl, Anita, in order to reduce the costs of the rental car. We started in Nelson and then headed down the West coast anti-clockwise around the South Island, exploring some of the impressive scenery which you can see in the pictures. They are sorted chronologically based on the route we took.

Naive as I am I absolutely underestimated the implication of what it means to travel together 24/7 without knowing each other. I had found her online and my criteria for contacting her were her age (same as mine) and her looks :-p 

In fact, it didn't even cross my mind that any sort of conflict might arise between us. Well, we could not have been more different in our personality, expectations and the style of traveling, which made the whole trip often very challenging. While Anita was, in my view, very chaotic -she frequently misplaced things and needed time to look for them- and likes traveling haphazardly, which is getting up in the morning without a clue of where to go next, my "half of the car" was always tidy and I tried to pursue a rough trip outline in order to ensure a decent amount of time at each destination. Our different approaches naturally caused a fair deal of tension as you can imagine. However, I don't want to go into too much detail, but rather focus on seeing the glass as half full: I was able to enjoy the luxury of a rental car at half price even though we did not stay together until the end of the rental period. 

We parted in Dunedin, and I drove the car back across the entire South Island to return it in Nelson. During those few days that I was driving on my own, I had the pleasure to meet a police officer with intercultural competence, or at least an awareness of national differences in highway patrol. He had caught me "speeding" and was coming after me (I was going 112km/h instead of the speed limit of 100km/h on NZ country roads - there are no "real" highways in this country!). He kept following me with his siren wailing and the blue lights flashing, but I wasn't sure what he wanted me to do because there was no shoulder on which I could have pulled over, only a strip of grass which I didn't consider a safe "parking spot". That's why I kept on driving at reduced speed and that's why he grew impatient with me. At some point he used his loudspeaker telling me to stop and I pulled over onto the grass. 

He was actually a nice guy. We had a pleasant chat about our different expectations of each other (I had expected him to overtake me in order to lead me somewhere where we could stop safely) and in the end, he let me off with an oral warning to focus on my speed. Thank God!

That same night I went to the local pub to get thoroughly pissed. I had pitched up my tent within walking distance of the pub and wanted to enjoy the fact that I didn't have to drive anymore (usually there were no pubs close to the campsites, pubs generally don't serve non-alcoholic beer(!) and Anita didn't like driving the car on the left side of the road, which had left me as the main driver all the time). I asked an elderly man, who sat at a table by himself contemplating over a pitcher of beer, if I could join him. We slowly engaged in some small talk and gradually our conversation grew more personal thanks to the flow of beer and his readiness to talk. His name was John [...I think,... if I remember correctly]. He was British, but had left the UK and his family (wife + 3 children) 12 years ago to become a carpenter in NZ. I actually didn't say much the whole time, he just poured out his whole life story over the second pitcher of beer while I listened unperturbedly. At some stage he wanted to show me the house he was building by order of some rich guy, and drunk and careless as I was by then, I consented to get into the car with him. He must have had at least 3 litres of beer, it was almost dark and we drove off into the country. Luckily, it all went well. After I had duly praised the unfinished house, he dropped me off at the campsite safe and sound.  However, it was at the construction site in the middle of nowhere when I suddenly (finally!) became a bit uneasy and cautious of not sending "the wrong signals" , realizing that I would not be able to walk back on my own should need be.

Yesterday I arrived in Christchurch where I will be staying for a few days before I fly to my next destination: Sydney

 


Antworten (4)

Mechthild
I couldn’t stop laughing while reading your story, Esther. I have to repeat: genius writing and a sense of a very special humour. Go on , my dear. ❤️

Mechthild
I forgot to mention you also made fantastic pictures of New Zealand! I would like to go there as well

Isabel
Depending on the photos I found your trip around the South Island the most impressive one. It seems to be a wonderful landscape - really looking forward to going there! Reading about your nice meeting with the policeman made me burst into laughter :-D It does not seem like you eheh...

Viktoriia
Ich habe nur endlos gelacht, Esther:)!

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