Geraldine to Christchurch via (Ashburton, Sheffield and Oxford) 29th April to 1st May

The day started wet, a theme that was soon going to become common as our trip neared its end. After a slow morning we set off, driving through puddles, rivers and newly formed streams. The rain overnight had been persistent and was still falling. As we slowly worked our way through the back roads and back on to the highway we soon arrived in to the town of Ashburton. We parked up on the side of the road to check in the information for things to do on a rainy day as neither of us fancied watching Casino Royal for the 20th time. Thankfully there was an air museum, which was run by locals and funded by the community and other organizations. As we explored the planes in the hanger, pretending to shoot planes on an anti aircraft turret and taking off in a B52 cockpit we listened as the rain came down hard and relentless. After chatting to one of the guys running the hanger we wandered upstairs to their meeting room where we were invited for a cup of tea, we shared in stories of our travels, and had the odd debate about how New Zealand was lacking a footballing scene. Once we left the museum we headed back in to town, they had lured us towards a bacon sandwich, describing the bacon at their local butchers. Without second guessing we called in to pick up their smallest pack of bacon for the morning, a treat we would look so forward to.

As we departed Ashburton with the rain still failing we made head way towards Sheffield, we passed through Methaven and Mt Hutt but with visibility so poor we could not see the popular ski resort. As we neared Sheffield we spotted a picnic site down by the river, although at this moment in time the river was not its normal aqua blue but a muddy brown in full flow from the torrent of rain that was falling. As we parked up for the night we just managed to avoid burying the wheels in the mud. We sat back and listened as the rain fell heavy for another night.

As morning arrived the rain was still falling, the ground even more sodden than it was when we had arrived the night before. However our spirits were high as we sat and indulged on some English back bacon, the first bacon sandwich on our travels and it was good, even though swine flu originates from pigs it still tasted awesome. Once our taste buds relaxed we headed down the road to Sheffield where we brought dinner for the evening, two pies, peppered steak and the Sheffield Supreme, consisting of steak, bacon and cheese. “I’m drooling just writing about them.” As we hit the road once more we slowly made our way through to Oxford although the weather was still as terrible as it had been the past few days our plans were somewhat limited. We stopped off in Oxford to check the internet, although we did it the cheap way of stopping outside locals houses to see if anyone had failed to secure their network, as per there was one. The day got better here when I found out the news my family had teamed up to renew my season ticket as a joint venture, talk about bringing sunlight to a rainy day. I buzzed while Rachel rolled her eyes, now wondering if she would ever see me when we got home jokingly. After lunch in a picnic site we continued on our journey, the day really passed with little happening, a money shortage and a moist outdoors contributed greatly to this, as evening started to pull in we found camp at Mt Thomas about 25km north of Oxford, as we pulled in to the camp site with the rain still falling I made the fatal error of driving down a slight slope. Then my mistake was punished, as I quickly attempted to reverse the wheels spun, we slid down the hill to the bottom where we were met with a muddy splash, Rachel looked at me and burst in to laughter, my feelings were of slight more rage, maybe the stress of the campervan had started to show in my actions, as I attempted to turn us round we only got in to more problems, eventually I had us facing the right way but with no ground to grip and a stream running at almost three times its normal height it was important that we somehow got out of the situation. Rachel continued to laugh at our luck, I continued to throw a strop swearing and cursing t every optimistic comment she threw at me, “rolls reversed” some of you might say. I hunted around for wood to grip on, getting absolutely soaked at the time, Rachel sat in the cab feet up relaxed, I could barley believe my eyes, I had turned in to the stressed human that normally accompanied a woman, I mean Rachel has called me camp on this trip, I have blamed the lack of male company, “not that I like male company… ah forget it” any rate eventually I found wood, I placed Rachel in the driver’s seat and pushed at the back, I fell flat on my face with mud all up me… my language was shocking, Rachel’s smirk was poorly hidden, as we swapped places I revved the engine, spinning the wheels and Rachel pushed, however to my surprise she did not fall, she only went and pushed us out! As I spun back up the hill with the momentum I got us back on level ground, or should I say Rachel did, “you can only imagine what I had to listen too for the rest of the night.” As we parked up on the concrete we laid listening to the rain all night once more, it had been raining for over 50 hours nonstop, crazy I thought.

The next day we set off on our way once more, we took time out in kaiapoi where we spent much of the day, buying the last bits of fruit and relaxing by what was now a calming river. The next day we would be heading in to Christchurch but we spent most of today deciding whether to head in today. Eventually we came round to the idea of waiting until tomorrow to head in. After lunch we sat and watched Falcons eating beside us before setting off to camp for the night. The day was of little interest, maybe due to tiredness we decided that we camp up early. As we headed round the across the motorway we pulled up across fields and out by the river once more, planes roared over as they headed for Christchurch, we spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun, I painted stones with Rachel’s nail vanish and glued them together to form the ‘Contempary Art’ or so I classed it as. Then after numerous games of Scrabble turned out the lights for an earlier night ready for the adventures of tomorrow. As the sun came up we were heading to our final stop on the campervan experience, the 2 months were coming to an end, at the time we were looking forward to it, a proper bed, was only days away, and a hot shower. However Christchurch had a lot to offer so we were not prepared to waste the remaining time we had.