12/03/09

We woke up to a guy knocking on the door, Coops answered it, it was a guy telling us that we had parked illegally overnight and that if we were going to stay another we would have to stay in a campsite. We laid in bed for another few hours before getting up and when we did Burns was in an awful rush to use the toilet but refused to piss in the camper toilet. It was his turn to drive so he was spanking it around all the cliff top corners to get to the bog as soon a possible. One corner he took caused the fridge door to open and the trays in the bottom full of veg to slide out across the floor. We got to the toilets, spent a few minutes tidying the van up, taking the rubbish out. Coops and I had a battle to see who could stand on the low fence the longest. Then we headed in to town to phone Apollo about the battery and the leaking shower / sink. The guy on the phone was the most useless person ever. They apparently have 24 hour roadside assistance for any problem, he told me to take the battery to get it checked at a specialist battery dealer, when I asked him where I could find one he said "ther'll probably be one in Hamilton but I dont know where" what a cock. He then told me that the battery doesn't get fully charged from driving around and that you should idealy plug in to a mains supply ever 48 hours, we were never told this when we picked it up in Auckland. His solution to the leaking shower was to buy a plunger and see if there was a blockage.


We wandered past a bar called Vinnies then up and down the shops before heading off to go on a walk in the nearby forests. On the way we saw a sign informing us that there were windy roads for the next 48km, 1km after that sign there was another telling us that the road was a gravel track from then on. We gave it a go anway, but after the camper nearly tipped on its side around one corner, things started jumping off shelves and everyone we passed looked really confused we thought we'd better turn back and give it a miss.

On the way back we stopped off at a place called Manu Bay, it's the place we had the view of last night. During the day there were s*** loads of surfers out and it was nice a sunny. We spent an hour or so sitting around watching them. There was no beach, just s*** loads of rocks lining the shore which the huge waves would crash on sending spray about 10 metres into the air. I sat down and watched a surfer stand on the rocks for a while eyeing up the waves. After 20 minutes he spotted a break in the waves and made his move, he sprinted across the rocks and launched himself on the top of one of the waves that was then coming in, then frantically paddled out and under the next just in time not to be pummeled into the rocks by the huge one following. As we were sat on the grass at the top reading and soaking up the sun some t*** in a s***ty car screeched along and started doing donuts in the gravel car park right next to the camper. As he attempted to stop he skidded and ploughed right in to the back of another parked car, we got his numberplate and informed the French family when they returned.

We then headed off to see a waterfall. We got there and both Helen and Coops needed the loo so used the toilet in the camper, 20 seconds in to the walk there were public toilets. Rich and I went for a bit of a jog down the footpath and reached the waterfall. Their signs over here are s***, they told us it was 1 minute walk to the waterfall which was actually just a few paces away. We started walking down to the bottom but the path was closed half way down so we had to make do with the view from there. On the way back we went back in to the Four Square shop which we seemed to have spent hours in already, I was starting to get sick of the place so just waited outside. We had to charge the battery at a campsite tonight so we bought some spuds we could do in the microwave.

We parked up at the huge campsite over the road which we managed to get in for $12 instead of $14 just because we said thats what we were told it cost. The girls spotted a trampoline so we were over there straight away. It was s***, you had to put in so much effort to get any height off it, I just about managed a lazy back on it. Spent a good hour or so on it because it was so nackering, its probably the most exercise I've had in weeks. We all enjoyed a good shower and I popped some washing in, then Rich and I went to get some beers in. The tide had gone right out now, the water level was about 5 metres lower than earlier. On the way Rich spotted a childrens play area and couldn't resist going on the zip-line, I found a mushroom shaped bin and got the chance to do a bit of pommel work on it. On the way back we caught some bloke feeding a duck a tub of water. We took the beers back to the camper and sat around drinking and talking s*** while playing billionaire all night. Thank god we had toilets near, I was going like mad after a few beers.

12/03/09

We woke up to a guy knocking on the door, Coops answered it, it was a guy telling us that we had parked illegally overnight and that if we were going to stay another we would have to stay in a campsite. We laid in bed for another few hours before getting up and when we did Burns was in an awful rush to use the toilet but refused to piss in the camper toilet. It was his turn to drive so he was spanking it around all the cliff top corners to get to the bog as soon a possible. One corner he took caused the fridge door to open and the trays in the bottom full of veg to slide out across the floor. We got to the toilets, spent a few minutes tidying the van up, taking the rubbish out. Coops and I had a battle to see who could stand on the low fence the longest. Then we headed in to town to phone Apollo about the battery and the leaking shower / sink. The guy on the phone was the most useless person ever. They apparently have 24 hour roadside assistance for any problem, he told me to take the battery to get it checked at a specialist battery dealer, when I asked him where I could find one he said "ther'll probably be one in Hamilton but I dont know where" what a cock. He then told me that the battery doesn't get fully charged from driving around and that you should idealy plug in to a mains supply ever 48 hours, we were never told this when we picked it up in Auckland. His solution to the leaking shower was to buy a plunger and see if there was a blockage.


We wandered past a bar called Vinnies then up and down the shops before heading off to go on a walk in the nearby forests. On the way we saw a sign informing us that there were windy roads for the next 48km, 1km after that sign there was another telling us that the road was a gravel track from then on. We gave it a go anway, but after the camper nearly tipped on its side around one corner, things started jumping off shelves and everyone we passed looked really confused we thought we'd better turn back and give it a miss.

On the way back we stopped off at a place called Manu Bay, it's the place we had the view of last night. During the day there were s*** loads of surfers out and it was nice a sunny. We spent an hour or so sitting around watching them. There was no beach, just s*** loads of rocks lining the shore which the huge waves would crash on sending spray about 10 metres into the air. I sat down and watched a surfer stand on the rocks for a while eyeing up the waves. After 20 minutes he spotted a break in the waves and made his move, he sprinted across the rocks and launched himself on the top of one of the waves that was then coming in, then frantically paddled out and under the next just in time not to be pummeled into the rocks by the huge one following. As we were sat on the grass at the top reading and soaking up the sun some t*** in a s***ty car screeched along and started doing donuts in the gravel car park right next to the camper. As he attempted to stop he skidded and ploughed right in to the back of another parked car, we got his numberplate and informed the French family when they returned.

We then headed off to see a waterfall. We got there and both Helen and Coops needed the loo so used the toilet in the camper, 20 seconds in to the walk there were public toilets. Rich and I went for a bit of a jog down the footpath and reached the waterfall. Their signs over here are s***, they told us it was 1 minute walk to the waterfall which was actually just a few paces away. We started walking down to the bottom but the path was closed half way down so we had to make do with the view from there. On the way back we went back in to the Four Square shop which we seemed to have spent hours in already, I was starting to get sick of the place so just waited outside. We had to charge the battery at a campsite tonight so we bought some spuds we could do in the microwave.

We parked up at the huge campsite over the road which we managed to get in for $12 instead of $14 just because we said thats what we were told it cost. The girls spotted a trampoline so we were over there straight away. It was s***, you had to put in so much effort to get any height off it, I just about managed a lazy back on it. Spent a good hour or so on it because it was so nackering, its probably the most exercise I've had in weeks. We all enjoyed a good shower and I popped some washing in, then Rich and I went to get some beers in. The tide had gone right out now, the water level was about 5 metres lower than earlier. On the way Rich spotted a childrens play area and couldn't resist going on the zip-line, I found a mushroom shaped bin and got the chance to do a bit of pommel work on it. On the way back we caught some bloke feeding a duck a tub of water. We took the beers back to the camper and sat around drinking and talking s*** while playing billionaire all night. Thank god we had toilets near, I was going like mad after a few beers.