NZ Adventure Begins

Well, where do I start? It is Thursday night....I am sitting in a one room cabin with the heater cranked, in one of the "big towns" of South Island New Zealand.....give me an hour, and I'm pretty sure I could introduce myself to all 216 residents!! But hey, I have NO complaints whatsoever. We pulled into this place at 10pm, and a woman came walking out to the parking lot to help us, even though they closed an hour before hand. She gave us a cabin, towels for the shower, and a coupon for three hours of free wifi (the first free internet during this entire vacation) all for $50.

Hell, at this point, I would have paid $50-$100 for a hot shower and the internet alone. Let's flashback to how we ended up here.....


SYDNEY: Wednesday at 1:30pm (Flight departure time 6:35) as we went online to check in for our flight before leaving for the airport, Andy and I were confused to not find our flight listed online. However, this has happened already on this trip (Thank you United Internet debacle) so we weren't too worried. We phoned the airline from our apartment lobby (we were already all checked out and moved out..) only to find after about 20 minutes on the phone that our flight was in fact still on, but that it had left already.....and that the next flight would not leave until the following morning. Turns out that Andy got an email a few months back saying that our flight time had been changed...but when he printed the itineraries right before we left, he printed the old one, not the new one...

So we were stuck in Sydney for another night....The lady at our apartment would not give us a deal even though we already stayed five nights, and therefore, Andy and I started walking around Sydney in search of a hotel to stay at. Take a moment to imagine that scene....No, I did not cry....but yes, I may have mentioned the phrase..."I want to go home." We ended up finding a hotel a few blocks from the apartment and gave Sydney some more of our money at dinner that night.

As soon as we landed in New Zealand we got a rent-a-car and started the drive towards Queenstown. I drove first....and had a few near panic attacks on the roundabouts near Christchurch....driving on the right hand side of the car, and the left side of the road, definitely threw me off for a bit....oh yeah, and one more minor issue.....yes, Andy, I will admit it to everyone.....

Apparently I drove with the parking brake on for an hour.....

It's okay though, because our car was a POS to start with.

Alright, I need to go to bed, we are getting up early to finish our drive. Just wanted to update everyone....we've learned that the people here in NZ are the friendliest ever...thank goodness for this cabin tonight!!


LOVE FROM THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE :)

J&A