New Zealand - Day 10

Travelled 33 kms

Early on our last day I heard very heavy raindrops on the roof of the van, but it didn't sound like heavy rain. Bizarre, I thought. Yesterday morning we were lulled with the rythmic clickety clack of the train and this morning Phil Collins was drumming on the roof of our van. After breakfast of whatever was left in the fridge M began to pack. I decided to turn the fire hose situated outside the van onto the very dirty van. We'd been to places the locals hadn't and this sometimes meant travelling on dusty unmetalled roads. The dust washed off easily though as the rain during the night had loosened it. I did the outside stuff at the same time, wishing to return the van in a good clean condition.

The Grand total of 2305 kms was driven around the South island NZ. We missed out on the most northern part, Blenheim and Picton, with the Marlborough wine region all around here. Margaret felt it would be a bridge too far to go that far north. I didn't know either, even though I really wanted to go there. In the end we didn't and it will always be a regret for me. In hind sight we could have done it rightly, and it would have been a complete tour.
Our final destination was to be 116kms away, on the near side of Christchurch. It was down to us to refill the gas bottle, and we were pointed to a place on the other,far side of Christchurch. It was another bummer that we didn't get to spend any time in this beautiful city so we detoured to rectify this problem and found the City centre to be almost dignified in its appearance and that of its incumbents. A city worthy of a few days on its own.
Sadly we made our way to the Adventure Camper Van rental company.
Handing over the van. No problem. No accidents nor incidents. Everything clean and working, except for the dodgy connection for the sat nav.
I was going to do a breakdown of costs on this and decided against it. This was not a holiday, it was more a journey of discovery. I needed to know if a camper van was better than a caravan in these circumstances. Would it be worth having one for long trips into Europe? Could it be done solo?
You bet it would.
This was a journey we'll never forget, and to the potential travellers like John and Hilda, whats keeping you?

Best Experiences. Again I was going to classify all we had done, but everything we did needed everything else to give it the magic.

The original plot was, Trevor would pick us up from the airport in Melbourne after NZ, and deliver us to his and Nicolas' place. Sadly Trevor had a late meeting in work so we would have to make our own way back. Jasis, we'd just driven around another country, how hard would it be to find Lynott Street. Arrived in Melbourne CBD at Southern Cross station only to face nightmare traffic in the rush hour. It was made worse by a none English speaking black taxi driver. All he said the whole way was yes, several times, and smiled.
We stayed at home tonight, and gibbered on about the trip until Nicolas' eyes glazed over and Trevor watched the crickt intently.

And so to bed, tired but still on a high caused by a fantastic trip in a fantastic country.