We bought a Van

We touched down in Christchurch, New Zealand on January 31st, 2012. Back in Margaret River, on our Aussie wine tour, Clare met and then introduced me to Ruth and Clive Martis. The couple and their family had their home in Christchurch and often hosted friends and visitors. They extended an invitation to us as well...Ruth and Clive were out of town at Clive's father's funeral in the North Island, so their daughters; Hannah (28ish), Annie (23), and Solveig (21) hosted us. We stayed in Christchurch for 4 days in search of a vehicle to traverse the roads and wilderness in. Lonely Planet suggested a Backpacker Car Market and Turner's Auction -- no luck. Solveig picked us up and just as we were beginning to get discouraged, a van for sale pulled up next to us at the stoplight. Carly, Solveig's Aussie friend, quickly made the decision that we should, "Follow that van!" It was a bit of a car chase and successful in the end. Lucas, an Argentinian, was selling his friends' backpacker van while they were in Thailand. It was the best deal so far and we decided to not waste anymore time and made the sale. Clare wrote to her brother Reid, telling him about our new purchase of a 1992 Toyota Estima Van, and he wrote back saying we had bought a Japanese Bullet Train. That's what we continued to call her throughout the rest of the trip and J.B.T for
short.

We headed to Hamner Springs on February 3rd. On our way there, we stopped in Waipara Valley to taste wine at Pegasus Bay. We picked up a bottle of their Riesling. It was off-dry and that was probably why we liked it (after tasting many sour-like Sav. Blancs). The grounds were well-kept...




We discovered at little spot outside of the touristy town of Hamner Springs. You have to pay to use the hot baths so we opted out and found a nice little pull-off by Jack's Pass. That was the first night we camped in the Van, it was lovely! We also discovered that there was a tiny hole in the air-mattress that had come with the van. We woke up nestled next to each other in middle dip of the bed. (We had always meant to fix it but never did, and every morning we woke in the same predicament :)