Campervan Day 1

Julia gave us a lift to pick up our campervan this morning, leaving the house at about 8:15.  The pickup was a LONG process!  We didn’t end up leaving the place until about 12 noon.  We had to watch a video about how to work everything in the van and then wait for someone to help use, get the paperwork signed, have a tour of the van, check for any preexisting damages.  When checking out the roof, Dad spotted a tool in the middle.  When the guy came with a ladder to get it down it was an extremely rusty set of pliers that looked like it had been there quite awhile, so apparently they don’t check all that thoroughly!  When we finally got on our way, the first stop was in Otorohanga, to the Kiwi bird house to see some real live kiwi birds.  They are noctournal so you have to look pretty carefully in the dark enclosure they have, but we saw the 14 year old male and one year old female.  We walked around the rest of the place and saw some Pukeko birds and some other native kiwi birds and then got back on the road again to head to Wellington where we would spend the night in a camping park close to the ferry terminal.  Leaving at about 3:30, our arrival time in Wellington was 11pm!  The roads were winding and very hilly for most of the way.  We stopped in Taumarunui to stock up on some groceries and get some lunch/dinner at a cafe.  We arrived at our camp site after office hours so they put a sign on the reception door telling us which site we were in.  I’m pretty sure we were the last people in at night and then the first people out in the morning!  We couldn’t figure out how to get our little storage place open where our power cord and hoses were kept.  The guy locked it before we departed and I guess he really struggled with it.  There were quite a few keys to chose from and none seemed to do the trick!  I even snapped one off in the key hole while trying at about 11:30 at night in the dark...luckily the piece came out, we’re just hoping that wasn’t the one we needed to get it open!  So far, we only know that the broken key locked the top lock on the door into the living cabin, which has another lock as well, luckily! 

It was a short night for sleeping, since we had to be up and moving by 4:30am!  Final check-in for our ferry across to the South Island was at 5:05am with a 6:05 departure time.  Currently, we’re making the 3 hour trip across and will arrive in Picton with a full day ahead of us to spend exploring!