We popped into the supermarket for supplies before our drive to Nelson where we would be staying, maybe we should have topped up the petrol tank then too...As we reached Haverlock we were getting rather low on fuel: "It's OK we can get some here"...er..."No its not OK the petrol station has shut down". Yes, it was shut and it was a Shell Garage, not some locally run place. So we continued down the road thinking there would be a petrol station at the next town, only to discover on arrival that that town was even smaller and no there wasn't a petrol station.
I was biting my tongue, as I was thinking: "We should have got some in Picton" , we had been parked right opposite a petrol station there!!
Fitz made the decision to turn around and drive back to Haverlock, whilst all the way I was hoping we'd have enough fuel to get us back there as the needle on the fuel gage sat on the red line. We got back to Haverlock OK with the theory there must be another petrol station somewhere, you couldn't be this far away from anywhere and not have one. After driving around and enquiring in the Chippy, we were directed to see a man in the pub, who promptly lent us a petrol can without us even needing to finish our explanation of why we were there. All we had to do was leave a $20 deposit and go down to the harbour and use the self service pump down there to fill up. Some comfort was had in the fact that this had become quite a common event (so we felt slightly less stupid) since the Shell garage had shut down. The locals were pretty pissed off and where campaigning to get it open again.
We should have got a photo of Fitz using the self service pump but it wasn't amusing at the time. The use of the credit card on the pump also resulted in a phone call from the bank about strange usage of the card , even though they'd been told it would be used in New Zealand - bloody banks!!
We finally made it to Nelson and checked into a nice hostel near the beach aptly named 'The Beach Hostel'. I found Nelson to be a pleasant, relaxed town, with friendly locals and a good amount of sunshine.
Chilling out on Tahuanui beach with a beer was particularly enjoyable.
We wouldn't have believed that it would be flooded out in 3 days time, but unfortunately it was.
A trip to Milford Sound - the most visited place in New Zealand was a must see and definitely worth the 4 hour drive there and back from Te Anau.
Milford Sound is not actually a 'sound' it is a fjord. Sounds are formed by rivers and fjords are formed by glaciers and since Milford Sound was formed by a glacier, it should really be named 'Milford Fjord'. Don't say I never tell you anything useful!
I'm finding this whole round the world trip to be a Geography lesson! If they took kids on field trips around the world I'm sure they would find learning Geography a bit more interesting!!
We took a nature cruise around Milford Sound which was really interesting and informative. The whole place is absolutely gorgeous, it was lovely to go to a place of such natural beauty. The highlight for me was when they took the boat under a waterfall which had created a couple of rainbows and we ended up right underneath one of them.
I got pretty soaked - despite wearing 2 waterproofs - one borrowed waterproof plus my own.
But I absolutely loved it cos they were playing Issac 'Somebody's' (can't confirm his surname) version of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' which made it extra special, (though it may sound cheesy to some of you) and gave me goosepimples.
So that was our experience of New Zealand in a nutshell.
Now we're well and truly off to see the Wizard....
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