This weekend is our last holiday one until the other side of winter, so we headed off in our campervan after work on Friday. Our destination was the Mt Barker area near Wanaka. Friday was a lovely evening, with no wind – always a bonus. Traffic wasn’t too heavy but we keep wishing for more areas where we can safely pull over to let traffic go by. We felt there were more pull off stretches in the North Island. And the drivers in the North Island are definitely better at tooting in appreciation. We stopped for tea in one of the side streets in Roxburgh. It was baked beans and bacon on toast with a cup of tea and dishes done in a shade over 30 minutes. The big hill out of Roxburgh once again highlighted a shortcoming of the 3.6 litre non-turbo Mitsubishi Canter 5-speed. 50km/hr is flat out in 3rd, but then sometimes it just cannot pull 4th on the hills. It’s a great wee truck that hasn’t missed a beat. But there a times when a gear between 3rd and 4th would be good to have. We had a great few days at Wanaka, and the views of the mountains were superb. I managed to run us out of gas for the second time in about a month. Not a good thing. We had a spare small gas bottle but guess who had left the correct fitting for it at home? Moi! The consolation is that we were beside a well-insultated house with a good wood fire. Phew!
By rough calculations, these were our 66th, 67th and 68th nights in our campervan, since May 2007. Not bad considering we work full-time – that’s almost 10 weeks all up.
