Day 4 Monday, Aug. 30 -- Christchruch to "Edoras"

Synopsis

We found out that our campervan was leaking water, so we went back to the rental place where they gave us a new van. We headed west to the foot Southern Alps, and then drove south along the mountains. We ended up heading out to the filming location of Edoras from the Lord of the Rings, which was absolutely stunning.

Detailed Journal

We awoke in our toasty warm campervan at about 0930. The warm van was exciting news because we knew it meant the sun was warming it since the heater wasn't so great. Lots of sun meant a potentially beautiful day. We peeked out the windows to see a beautiful blue sky without a single cloud to be seen.

We were slow moving this morning. We had a breakfast of a granola-type Kellogg's-brand cereal called Just Right Original and some Fresh Meadow Light Strawberry yogurt. Lynette decided to take a longer shower (last night's wasn't very satisfactory since the warm water didn't last long). This morning was a little longer. We took the bed down and returned the back end to "daytime configuration".

Once we were dressed for the day, we decided to complete all the water change-outs on the campervan before hitting the road (empty toilet and shower water and top off fresh water supply. When we stepped outside, we noticed a very steady stream of water flowing out from the underside of the campervan. We both half-climbed under to see the origin of the leak. The leak was from the grey water tank, which is the holding tank for the outfall from the shower and sink. We couldn't see/feel a hole in the tank.

We decided to drive back to the place where we rented the campervan. We explained the situation to the receptionist at the rental place and she called for a mechanic. Jason went out to move the campervan into the rental company’s drop-off and pick-up area. In the process of maneuvering out of people's way, we bumped one of the white support columns for the overhang. No damage to the vehicle, just some extra paint on the brake light and around. We decided to deal with that later. After about 20 minutes of waiting for the mechanic, we had the receptionist page him again. He came out, took the keys, and took the campervan back for an inspection. Within 10 minutes he was in the lobby telling the receptionist that they needed to switch us over to a new van. We looked at each other and he almost lost control with laughter because of unfortunate timing of the new paint addition to the van.

We went out to the van to get the original contract and try to wipe the extra paint off the rear-end of the vehicle. There was little success for this effort. We got out the alcohol cleaning pads from the first aid kit and that pretty much did the trick. We got switched into a new van (they told us we could keep the comforter from the first van and travel with 2 comforters, which should help on the cold nights), Jason topped off the gas in the old one, and by about 1pm, we were finally on the road in our new campervan. We set out (essentially from the airport) heading on Highway 1 south to Highway 73 east towards Mt. Hutt. We were both pretty hungry so we decided to split an apple to tide us over until our afternoon destination(s).

Once we were a little ways out of Christchurch, we decided to swap drivers. Jason wanted a few minutes to look over some maps, so Lynette made a sandwich for the 2 to split. This was Lynette's first test of driving the "backwards" steering on the "backwards" streets. At some point, she took a curve that was just big enough that we discovered that she hadn't locked the fridge back after making the sandwich. Everything from the fridge was dumped into the middle of the campervan. We decided to pull off into a little side road and put everything away. In her attempt at her first turn around in the van, Lynette drove the back end off the road....into a wet, muddy embankment....and then we were stuck. She tried moving forward/backward with no success. Jason took over the wheel with the same result. We found some sticks and tried shoving them against the wheel for traction with still no success. We decided to get he snow chains out and try to put those against the wheel for traction. Just then, a local pulled up in a pick-up truck. He said he thought he could help us out. He locked down his hubs, tied us to the back of his truck and within minutes had us back on the road. We thanked him several times and asked him if there was anything we could do for him. He just said no and got in his truck and pulled up to give us room to turn around. He sat and waited to make sure that we were on the street. Then, just like that, he was gone.

We got back on the road (scenic road 72; Jason was very spooked by now about the possibility of being stuck). We stopped at a small convenience store/information center in Staveley. Lynette bought her first postcard and we got directions to see Mt. Sunday (more commonly known to Americans as the filming location for Edoras, the capital of Rohan in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy). After a few minutes chatting and getting directions, we headed back on the road (scenic rd 72).

At Mt. Somors, we turned west onto Ashburton Gorge Road. The views started off good, but nothing spectacular and Jason had begun to think it was a mistake to spend several hours on this detour. However, the views became better and better as one impressive mountain after another popped into view. The only signs of civilization between the town of Mt. Somers and Mt. Sunday was a small community at Lake Clearwater, about three-quarters of the was there, and several herds of sheep, cattle, and deer, sectioned off by wire fences. We crested over a hill and "Edoras" came into view. We had seen the view described as breathtaking, and that was almost literally the case. Mt. Sunday lies in the middle of a remarkably flat valley through which the Rangitata River flows. Surrounding the valley is almost 360 degrees of ominous, snow-covered mountains, rising seemingly straight up out of the valley. I'm sure the pictures that we took do not do it justice. It makes the heart ache to leave such a natural wonder.

After stopping to take a shot of the two of us in front of Mt. Sunday (along with a shot of us in front of Lynette's favorite mountains in the area), we drove on towards Erewhon. Several mud holes in the road made us a bit uneasy as a few more mountains came into view before we turned around and headed back for Mt. Somers. We saw a herd of deer (which seem to be popular livestock for farmers in the area, oddly enough), and stopped to take a picture. One of them took interest in us and actually seemed to move into a better position for a picture. After taking the shot, he followed the van as we drove off. We think he was mad that we didn't pay him for the picture!

We hit the main road as the sun was setting and headed towards Geraldine to spend the night. As the sun set, the full moon rose. It was orange and huge as it rose into the darkening sky that was a gradient of color from the horizon. We passed by field upon field, most of which contained a herd of sheep that huddled together in the cool evening air.

We stopped at a Mobil gas station in Geraldine for gas ($24.86 for about a half a tank) and had the attendant give us directions Geraldine Motor Camp. We paid $20 for a campervan site and began set-up for the night. We reheated last night's pizza and split a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner. Lynette worked on the journal and Jason worked on plans for tomorrow.

Pictures

01_S_Alps_oustide_Xchurch	02_S_Alps_oustide_Xchurch	03_Rakaia_River
04_Rakaia_Bridge	05_to_MtHutt	06_MtHutt1
07_MtHutt2	08_to_MtSunday1	09_to_MtSunday2
10_to_MtSunday3	11_to_MtSunday4	11a_MtSunday_pan
12_MtSunday1	13_MtSunday2	14_MtSunday3
15_us_near_MtSunday	16_us_and_MtSunday	17_near_MtSunday1
18_near_MtSunday2	19_Erewhon	20_us_Erewhon1
21_us_Erewhon2	22_cows_Erewhon	23_deer_Erewhon
24_near_MtSunday3	25_near_MtSunday4	26_near_MtSunday5
27_near_MtSunday6	28_near_MtSunday7	29_near_MtSunday8
30_from_MtSunday1	31_from_MtSunday2	32_moonrise1
33_moonrise2