Lately I have been traveling via an old beat up Mitsubishi red van. Sascha, my current travel companion from Germany, owns the van and has been traveling New Zealand the last few months. The van works as our wheels and accommodation. We cruise around in the front then usually crash in the back of the van on the side of the road or at some lookout point. The van is a lot of fun despite the fact that it goes a maximum of 80 kilometers per hour but up steep hills and mountains (which New Zealand is full of) it crawls at about 20 kph. Needless to say everybody passes us. The friendly ones honk.
We stopped in Queenstown for New Years Eve and hit the bars hard. It seemed the whole South Island had descended upon the small town for the night. A fun night and a great way to spend my birthday.
Next we headed to Glenorchy to climb the Heater Jock Trail. A two day tramping track. We got to the trail parking lot early and hung around for the night to start the trail in the morning. The lights of the van got left on so when we departed for the day with a dead battery to return too. The trail was entirely uphill to the Heather Jock Hut at the top. The climb wasn't bad but a lot different with all the gear loaded in the backpacks. When we got to the hut we realized why it was a free hut. The door was busted and covered by a blue tarp. The hut had three bunks and a dysfunctional fireplace. We found that out later when we smoked ourselves out at the break of nightfall. In all it was a fun night. We nearly froze to death in the hut with a few hours of sleep. Mostly tossing and turning. I just couldn't get my toes warm. We find out that night why everyone in the log book insisted the hut was haunted. We were eager to get back to the van the next day. After the hike and a quick walk down the road and a jump start from a local group of teenagers that looked like they were up to no good and we are back on the road.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
The Van Chronicles
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment