Lou was still rather comatose when I woke up at 7:30. The effects of multiple Tuis required a trip to a lavatory… one of the moments when I wished we’d forked out the extra for a van with an on-board toilet! I got dressed and discovered we were parked less than 100 yards from a McDonalds that opened early. Good fortune!

I made use of the facilites again at 8:50 when the alarm went off while Lou refused to acknowledge the fact that it was daylight. I raided her purse and changed her $US into $NZ (she’d been paid in Yankee Dollars for the job she did) and drove us back to the shopping centre we’d visited yesterday. Lou surfaced when we got there and necked some tea to get the wake-up glands pumping.

 A brief shopping trip was embarked on in K-Mart (I needed some new trainers) and I managed to convince myself not to buy a big bag of new mint M&Ms.

Our next scheduled stop was Lake Tekapo, a good few hours’ drive to the south. The roads were clear, so off we went. Our companion on the trip was a radio station called The Rock. Now, unlike the Metro group back home who named one of their stations similarly because it was located in Blackpool, this one’s monikered after the music it plays. I cannot explain how great it is to hear old Metallica, Linkin Park, Radiohead’s uncensored Creep and so on during daylight hours. I want to pick this station up and take it home with me, set it loose and let it kill off all the pants-awful garbage we have to put up with on the airwaves in the UK.

 As we got nearer, the conditions took a slight turn for the worse and the conditions weren’t as ideal as I’d have liked. Still, it was only a little slushy and cleared up again before we reached Tekapo.

We pulled up into a campervan park right next to the lake with a spectacular view. Unfortunately, the ground in the park was too wet and boggy for us to park up and use it for the night.

To make matters worse, The Rock had faded from the radio as we were out of range and in amongst all these silly mountains. Gah.

The campsite owner recommended we turn back to Fairley, or go ahead as far as Twizel. The thing is, there’s nothing at either of these places so we opted to gamble and head for Lake Wanaka. It was maybe another 3 hours’ drive, but we should just about make it by sundown, or not long after. Assuming the predicted snow didn’t come thudding down around our ears.

 The weather was kind to us. Wanaka Rocks took over on our radio (not just one, but two superb stations in one country!) and we arrived in Wanaka with a fistful of beautiful photographs about 30 minutes after the sun disappeared. Wanaka Rocks differs from The Rock in a few regards. It plays “radio friendly” versions of songs, is biased more towards Metallica than Nirvana, has no adverts and no DJs. The only times you hear a human voice are during the little pre-recorded “stabs” that tell you what station you’re listening to and on the rare news bulletins. Music’s great, though.

There were a few van parks to pick from and we selected one at the far end of the town, a short walk back in. Like them all, it had all the facilities we needed and was probably the cheapest at $12 per person per night. We settled in and had some cracking bangers and mash for dinner before popping out to check email at prices roughly three times what we’d become used to in Auckland.

Bed was very early, catching up from the redeye England match and long drive. At least this time the fan heater had been on for some time to take the not inconsiderable chill off. 

 Today’s deadline was simply to get to Christchurch with enough time to park up and catch a few Z’s before the England match at 4am the next morning. No big rush, then! We woke and had breakfast before leaving the campervan park and stopping a few yards further down the road for a go at the Gold Rush minigolf.

The site also has an Adventure Maze thingy, but it was closed due to the weather being somewhat inclement. OK, freezing. There are quite a few jumps and so forth inside, apparently, the worst result of which is usually just a bit of a dunking in some tepid water. The owner wasn’t that keen on people asking for their money back to help pay for time off work due to snapped limbs so had decided to just open the golf up. He’d done a great job of clearing all the snow away so it seemed a shame not to take advantage of his hard work.

 In the car park we made friends with another local – a little black and white cat which took to following us round the entire golf course. We treated her as a natural hazard (unless she ran off with the ball in which case replacing at approximately the point of original contact was allowed) and it was the duty of the non-player to keep her busy.

It really was a nice course, the snow really showing it off. The owner was a hugely friendly guy who’s two sons were abroad – one in London and one in Canada somewhere. Nice bloke – tell him we said “hi” if you pop in.

In passing, and not to gloat, I thrashed Lou at the Gold Rush course. Of course, I’m typing this up without letting her read it so she’d probably argue about the use of the word “thrash”. But there’s nothing she can do about it. Ha!

 The drive back down to Christchurch was fairly quiet apart from Lou trying to find a campervan park for us to use when I was quite happy to just park up in a street somewhere. Women seem to have this idea in their head that if they mention “showers” and “toilets” often enough, men will bow to the pressure and fork out money just so that one of us can’t drink during a major sports event.

We spotted an Irish pub doing steaks for $10 and pulled into a shopping centre just past it to get some groceries. Also nearby was a cinema which we scouted for times and then we made soup for a late lunch / appetiser for dinner. It did seem somewhat trailer trashy making soup in a campervan in a shpping centre car park, but ask me how much I cared.

Dinner was superb. $10 is little over £3.30 and for that we got a fairly impressively sized (and superbly cooked) steak with far too many chips and salad. We had to have an early meal so we could make the cinema in time for the film we’d picked out – Poseidon. I admit I wasn’t really expecting much from it… and that’s about what I got. It was OK, I suppose. Some great set pieces and the effects made Titanic look like a rubber dinghy – plus no crappy love story running underneath when all everyone’s really bothered about is watching the boat go down.

Straight after the film we headed into Christchurch centre and found some free parking a stonesthrow from Cathedral Square and the Holy Grail sports bar. We thought it best to scout out the pub beforehand, so plodded over and – lucky us – got there as hapy hour started. $3 pints and decent pool tables. An hour and a couple of Tui’s later, we returned to the van and conked out, the alarm set for 3:30am.

 Because we weren’t in a van park with the 220V cable plugged into a junction box, the power sockets (and therefore the fan heater) in the van wouldn’t work. Lou’s got this issue about being cold so we ended up with a duvet and two sleeping bags on the bed. Needless to say, she slept snuggly while I woke up at about 1am covered in more sweat than the last time I did Body Combat at the gym. It may have been freezing outside, but I slept on top of the covers until the alarm went off.

Rob had already arrived at the Grail when we called him, so we ran across Cathedral Square to get there quickly. Lou had forgotten her England shirt (doh!) so was wrapped in my NUFC/St George flag.

Beers were ordered and pessimistic opinions of our chances against weaker opposition spouted before kickoff… and another thoroughly dull game. Pretty true to form for El Sven. 82 minutes failing to score against Trinidad and Tobago – and not even a shot on target worthy of the name until Crouch’s goal. We may well have qualified for the next round, but I don’t hold out much hope with Sven bowing to popular pressure and insisting on running Rooney out instead of Owen.

Regardless, we had a good night and it was nice to see Rob again. We may catch him and Pam again when we head back north at the end of our little break. We schlepped back to the van and buried ourselves back under the covers at around 6:30 with the alarm set for 8:50. Just enough time to shift the van before we had to pay for the parking! 

 Lou insisted on getting a taxi to the airport rather than the Airbus as it was easier. It was also way more expensive (about 6 times the price) but I’ve been told not to go on about it so I won’t. Much.

NZ Airlines have started a quick check-in procedure at little terminals in the entrance hallway. Insert a credit card so it can read your name and tell it what flight you’re on. Confirm the passengers and your boarding pass pops out. Drop your bags off (if you have any) at the express baggage lane and you’re off. Dead easy.

Breakfast was BLT sandwiches which weren’t cheap, but were typically huge. Straight through the x-ray and onto the plane for our return to Christchurch. The flight was pleasant enough and the scenery as we prepared to land was unbelievable. Snow-covered mountains to the right, green hills to the left. Canterbury, the county wich contains Christchurch, had the largest snowfall in 60 years a couple of days previous and some areas further south were still without power. The airport itself has had to close at the time due to the weather, so we were lucky with our dates.

Backpacker Camper Vans picked us up when we landed and we were supplied with our home and transport for the next 2 weeks or so – a nice campervan, fully loaded with everything. We’d not gone for the luxury one with loo and shower, though. There really didn’t seem to be a point. To charge the batteries, they have to be parked up in a proper van bay every 2 days or so anyway. All the campervan parks have showers and toilets anyway, so why have teeny ones in the van that just cost more and have to be replenished regularly? The van we got came with a fridge, cooker, sink and beds – all we needed!

As we wanted to be in Christchurch two mornings later for the England v T&ampT match, we decided to head north first of all. Hanmer Springs was our destination. The town takes its name from the thermal springs in the area and they’re apparently well worth a visit. So visit, we did.

The drive up was almost becoming familiar after the journey from Picton and return trip to Kaikoura the previous week. Everything was slightly whiter, though. We turned off for Hanmer and the road became narrower and the scenery even better. We were heading into mountain country and driving towards them brought skydiving into my thoughts. You’re belting towards something at 100km/h yet it doesn’t seem you are as they never get any closer.

We arrived in Hanmer at around 4:30 and night was already drawing in as the sun set behind the snow-capped peaks. The camp we stayed at was called Mountain View for a reason – it was also run by a very friendly woman who recommended the springs (again). We promised we’d go, especially when she told us they did swimwear hire as we’d forgotten ours.

The springs are in two sections – some pools you can splosh around in and a health spa with massages and so forth. We just headed for the pools and it was well worth the visit. We forked out £25 for the pair of us to visit – but we opted for a private sauna and a private pool for half an hour each, and full use of the outdoor pools, and costume hire. Hey, we’d only be here the once.

 Getting changed wasn’t the warmest experience in the world. I’d guess the outside temperature was around minus four, though there was no wind chill. The worst bit by far was the stone floor which numbed my feet in seconds. First up, private pool. Woah. It burned getting in. Well, it did me. Lou jumped right in and loved it. I stepped gingerly in – it was like getting into a really hot bath only much huger.

We chilled for our half-hour until a knock on the door told us it was time to move to the sauna. The guard apologised, but the sauna had almost turned itself off and wasn’t as warm as it should be, so they said we could stay in for as long as we wanted to make up for it as nobody else had booked it. We managed to sit out the half hour and I was about to jump into the plung pool next to the sauna when Louise recommended I check the temperature first. It was bloody freezing! I opted for a shower instead, then we walked outside to use the pools there instead.

All the pools were mapped out and varying temperatures detailed. The coldest was 28 degrees and standard swimming-pool shaped. Three hexagonal pools varied from 37 to 39 degrees, the sulphur pools were in the mid-40’s and some other scenic pools were also around the 35 mark. In addition, there was another large pool at 28 degrees, but this was for use with the water slides which were closed due to the cold weather.

Steam was everywhere and the only cold spots seemed to be the stone flooring. Even standing on the snow was warmer! We lazed in most of the pools except the 28-degree one, as that actually seemed cold by now. After soaking in 40+ degree sulphur water, there’s no returning to a UK standard high-20’s pool!

Our time was up just before 8pm (the springs are open until 9pm) as there was a 2-hour limit on the lockers. Only it seemed when we went to the locker that we’d missed the deadline by a minute or so and had to insert another $2. Which was difficult as all our money was in the locker. Fortunately, one of the staff saw the logic in this and with a quick check just opened the thing for us. After all, as she said, it was only a minute or so over. Try and find a traffic nazi/warden in the UK with that attitude. I’ll tell you, over here I’ve struggled to find a jobsworth.

We’d intended on getting a carry-out dinner from a shop opposite, but they’d pretty much sold out so we walked to the “local” just down from the holiday park. $21 got us a platter for two covered in chips, spicy potato chunks, chicken nuggets, chicken legs, deep fried cheese, deep fried mushrooms… By my reckoning, enough to feed two lions rather than two pub guests. I swear they even re-heated the kitchen to serve us as all the lights had been off when we turned up. This is how you purchase your HVAC equipment Direct | Goodman AC And Furnace | HVACDirect.com, really, works impressive.

Safely fed and beered (well, one beered and one wined) we returned to our home on wheels. We’d left the fan heater on while we’d been out to keep the chill off and Lou insisted on turning it up full tilt before we went to sleep. It was certainly snug when we switched the lights off! 

 Well, I finally got to bed at around 4am. Lou’s flight from Singapore to Auckland had been delayed by roughly 7 hours, so instead of her being airborne when I wanted to crash out, she was stuck at the airport on the interwebnet terminals.

Facing the usual fear of all passengers – falling asleep and missing her flight – she needed someone to natter to. So natter we did. Until she didn’t have long to go before she departed. At least there weren’t too many people in the airport wanting to use the terminals as they were all downstairs watching the World Cup on the huge screen.

Checkout is at 10am in every hotel and hostel in New Zealand, so I set my alarm for 9:50. Enough time to chuck everything into my bags and drop them in the common room. I needn’t have bothered.

The Vietnamese people on the floor are very much into the same schedule they have at home. That is, wake when the sun comes up. And they’re noisy. Cooking, shouting, hawking up phlegm, radio… Net result was that I was up and about from around 8:30.

It also seems the hot water hasn’t recovered from yesterday’s power outage. Prior to this, all the taps and showers provided the full range from freezing to scalding. Now we get freezing to tepid. Ah well, I needed a shower so bit the bullet and scrubbed around the goosepimples.

The three tasks for the day were to get to Indy’s, get to the airport (or get Lou from it) and to swap hostels. I decided to loaf in the common room and use free internet until lunchtime and then walk up the road to BK Hostel. Of course, the weather was fine until I was about to leave. Then the rain started. Heavily.

Cue me unpacking the laptop for another half an hour.

Eventually, the downpour stopped and I bagged all my goods up and walked back up the hill to BK for checkin. Dropping a few of the bags off, I wandered back into town for lunch and to get the bus to Indy’s.

Welcome to another experience unlike any at home – helpful bus drivers and useful bus shelter information. The shelters each have a map of the city centre alongside a list of destinations (around 200 of them), telling you which buses you need to catch and what stands to get them from – and the maps show you where those stands are. Also, each bus route is mapped at the relevant stand so you can see what streets to keep an eye out for before you have to jump off.

Add to that a bus driver who’ll not only tell you that you need a different bus, but which one, what stand to go to and when it’s due… an experience unlike any I’ve had in years back home. One of the last buses I was on was in London about 3 years ago and I remember the driver hurling insults at one female passenger.

After a short wait, I got onto the correct bus and headed for Onehunga and Indy’s gaff. Megan had been sat in front of the television (this and Stevie Wonder both send her to sleep) and Lisa was catching up on some kip herself. Indy very kindly drove me to the airport to catch Lou’s incoming flight and we returned to the house for tea and more gurgling over Megan. Also to sort our luggage for the next couple of weeks.

Our limit was one large rucksack and two small ones – no suitacases! Even with a couple of fleeces, we managed this and Indy dropped us off at BK again. Despite it only being around 8pm, we were shattered – Louise in particular as she’d hardly slept in 72 hours. Our two appointments were for food and internet checkage.

Burger King was invaded for food. They’re doing a long-term promotion over here whereby you get some fairly cheap meals after 5pm. Also, all soft drinks are refillable if you have an eat-in meal. We went for the “two cheeseburgers, one Whopper, one long chicken sandwich, two large fries” meal ($NZ19.95) and two small drinks (no point in getting large ones when you can refill!). Lou had the two cheeseburgers. I wolfed down the two larger ones. And most of her chips.

After a quick stop to check email, we headed back to the hostel and crashed out. Tomorrow was going to be a long day. 

Well, it wasn’t engines causing the problem this morning. It was a loose cable on an electricity substation being whipped out by the wind and landing on the input feed. This wiped out four substations and two main power stations at around 8:30 this morning.

Around a quarter of the north island was rendered electricity-less. Whoops. This included my hostel, and I swear we were the last building in Auckland to get power back. In honesty, it wasn’t a major pain until the emergency lighting failed (it lasted a couple of hours – plenty of time to evacuate people if that had been required) and I couldn’t get up the stairs to my room as they were in utter darkness.

Virtually every business was shut. Convenience stores need power for the tills and scanners, so purchases with cash weren’t even possible. I spotted a couple of pubs and a Turkish kebab shop which kept going. The former’s beer was still cold and the latter sold wood-fired pizza.

Fire engines were screaming around the place all morning. I can only assume they were rescuing people stuck in lifts. A couple who’d just arrived at our hostel got stuck between floors, but were hauled to safety by an engineer who arrived promptly. Their biggest problem was not being able to check in, and a lack of hot water for showers.

One chap donned an orange waistcoat and took to directing traffic on one of the major junctions until the lights came on. He wasn’t with the police or council (who seemed to think the traffic would sort itself), but just a concerned guy who was worried someone would get hurt. Top marks!

Coincidentally, the south island also suffered power cuts. Their’s were due to massive amounts of snow forcing power lines to the ground. The weather down there looks a nightmare. Should be fun in the camper van later this week.

As part of my morning wander, I made my way to the top of Queen Street and popped into Surplustronics where I bought a used 1m patch lead. Once the power came back on in the hostel, I experimented. The hostel lists internet access as being on the first floor, but it was moved some time ago to the ground. However, there are four network points still located in the common room and I was curious… Lo and behold, within 30 seconds of plugging my laptop into the wall socket I was online. All for a dollar. I should have thought of this 5 days ago. It would have saved me a small fortune in cybercafe bills. Especially as, when Lou returns tomorrow morning, I’m moving back to the BK hostel.

Meals today were just a way of getting rid of what I had in the cupboard, and dinner was nachos. There is such a thing as a free meal, they’re just not very big is all.