26/04/09

We woke up surprisingly late today, it was half 9 when I heard Rich come back in from his wee. I read a bit until 10 and then decided to get up and have some brekkie. We were all ready to go at about 11. We stopped off at the Shell to fill up and the Countdown to get some food for the next few days as we guessed it would be expensive at Mt. Cook.

We left at about 1130 and I drove to Mt. Cook. We drove past lake Pukaki which was crazily blue, apparently caused because of the light reflecting off the sedimentary rocks brought down with the glacial water. It started pissing it down as we approached Mt. Cook and when we got there the roads at the info site were like a river. I managed to get the average speed to read 85km/h when we arrived, as the roads were straight and there was b***** all traffic, but the fuel consumption was up to 21 litres per 100k instead of the standard 15.

We had lunch in the car park and the rain still hadn't let up so we sat around catching up on journals and reading for a bit. After a while Rich let us know that the cafe 30 seconds walk away had a pool table, so I immediately asked what the hell we were still doing in the camper. We all got our pack-a-macs on and walked over. We spent the afternoon and most of the evening chilling out in the cafe and playing the odd game of pool. It was a really nice cafe, just a shame we couldn't manage to muscle in on the nice sofas next to the fire.

Later that night I drove slowly back out of the National Park and we parked up in a perfect layby about 12k out. We had a few games of billionaire and cooked a curry for dinner, the sauce was picked out by Helen even after Laura reminding her that that was the one that had given her the s***s last time. My stomach was pretty sore all day because I'd had some of the old pasta and tuna for lunch so I didn't have too much of it. About 20 minutes after we had finished it Rich decided that his stomach was feeling rather dodgy and ended up going outside in the pouring rain to have a turd behind the rock, he said it was the worst experience of his life. Soon after that Helen followed suit, she didn't even manage to get around the other side of the rock, she went literally just outside the camper by the wheel. About 5 minutes later she had to go again.

The rain didn't let up at all. At about 10 at night it really started pummeling it down on the roof, then every 10 seconds or so the entire camper would light up with a huge blue flash followed by a never ending rumble of thunder over the mountains. Laura and I watched Oceans 11 before trying to sleep through it. I managed to get a little bit of sleep but ended up laying in bed awake being blinded by the flashes all night. We ended up reading and watching Simpsons in the middle of the night.

27/04/09

I really started to need a wee and ended up having to go out for one at about 9. I was very wary of slipping in some nasty mess as I stepped out of the camper so I literally just stood 1 pace out of the door and went. As I was going I looked up at a plaque on the huge rock that we had parked next to for shelter from the wind. Turns out it is a memorial rock for the people who initially built the road all the way to Mt. Cook. Rich had taken a s*** the other side of it and Helens was sat right in front of it.

We drove back up to Mt. Cook through the rain, all in agreement that we wouldn't be going for a hike up it due to the flooding and continual thunderstorms. The water in the streams had risen metres over night and was inches from bursting over the bridges. We arrived and I asked if we there were showers we could use. I was told there were coin operated showers 500 metres away and I could get change for them there. We got there and I had to wade through shin deep water to get to the hut with them in. There was no where to get $1 coins for it so I went back to the info site to get change. I went completely the wrong way and ended up going a 2 mile loop of the local area before ending up back at the info site drenched. It only took me a few seconds to get back once I knew the right way. I went for a shower first, it looked so rank, definately one to keep the flip flops on in. I popped a coin in and turned the hot tap on avoiding the jet because I didn't want to be scolded. That was the least of my worries, the water was only just warm enough to prevent me from shivering, when the coin ran out freezing glacial water poured all over me. I didn't bother drying myself as I would get soaked wading back to the camper anyway. The others decided to give the shower a miss as it was so bad. I waited for them to all wash in the info site toilets where they had nice hot water on tap. Helen cooked us up some pancakes for breakfast and then we headed towards Christchurch.

I was pretty nackered for some reason, probably due to relentless hammering of the rain. As we passed Lake Tekapo the rain cleared up and soon the sun came out. I watched the Extras christmas specail on the way. We then drove over NZ's longest bridge, then pulled in to a layby to park up for the evening. We played a few games of billionaire, PnA and then half of round 2 of Malarky. There was some serious bulls***ting going on from everybody except for Laura who claimed she didn't have time to read the card and make something up. Whenever phrases like 'the Romans used to' or 'in ancient Greece' we all knew she was just reading the back of the card.