Campervanning around New Zealand:
Stats & statistics:
– Days spent on the road: 38
– Kilometers traveled: 5226
– Speeding tickets accumulated: 1
Continue reading Travel Stories: Campervanning around New Zealand
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Interlude: I Hate Tourist Towns
I hate tourist towns, AKA, how I got my first speeding ticket:
While passing through Wanaka, a tourist town in the southern island, I got pulled over for a speeding ticket, for allegedly going 11 km (less than 7 miles) above the speed limit. In an area right after a 100 km limit transitioned to a 50 km limit. Going downhill.
The accompanying fine was $80; if I had been measured at going 1km / hour less, the fine would have been $20.
Interlude: from New Zealand with Love
While traveling, I found this amazing all-purpose New Zealand postcard. Unfortunately, my pen ran out of ink, so I’m going to post it online:
Interlude: Australian Football
Australian football is a strange, fast paced sport that that strangely suits Australia. While in Melbourne, I caught a game of footie, watching a game between Collingwood vs Hawthorn on 14 April 2013. Admission was quite reasonable at $22, and the event was attended by 72,000 spectators.
Interlude: Travel Camping
On the way down the Gold Coast, I tried out travel camping almost every night – since the campervan was only large enough for two (my new Canadian friends), I slept outside in a tent. It was pretty comfortable though, since it was fall in Australia. And in the week and a half that we traveled together, I had a lot of variance in my camping.
Exhibit A: camping right along the coast, going to sleep while listening to the waves. I think the best part isn’t even falling asleep to the waves, but waking up to both the sound of the waves, and the warmth of the sun shining down on my tent.
Exhibit B: camping right along the side of the main highway, after finding that every campground in the area had closed at 5pm. Seriously, every campsite closed at 5pm – even if they had space, they wouldn’t allow you to check in. Take my money, damn it!
Exhibit C: tent + wind + dubiously placed pegs. My travel companions and I all laughed our asses off, but the boy scout in me was so ashamed.
Chance Encounters: Gold Coast
It’s really cool, how you can have fascinating chance encounters by being friendly and keeping an eye out.
Somewhere along the beaches of the Gold Coast, while hiking along the beaches, I came across a bunch of guys from Sydney, playing a game a beach cricket, and decided to join in. Never having watched or played cricket before, I found it a really fun and fascinating game. At its core, you have a batsman defending a post (a small tube stuck in the sand), and a pitcher throwing a ball at the batsman / post. If the pitcher hits the post, the batsman is out. Otherwise, the batsman gets to keep swinging at the ball until he connects – at which point he has to run to the pitcher and back to the post before somebody either catches the ball, or picks up the ball and pegs the post.
This being the beach, of course the dominant strategy is to hit the ball into the ocean. I’ve no doubt the game is more complicated than I’ve described, but I had fun! And I managed to score quite a few points too!
Chance Encounters: Byron Bay
After a chance encounter in Byron Bay, I’ve got a new nickname: Zen
While camping out at Byron Bay, I arrived back at the campsite one night to see a bonfire off into the distance. Hoping there might be s’mores, I headed over and check it out, and discovered a bunch of 20ish Aussie blokes, who all leapt up and yelled “hey, its Zen!” I rolled with the punches, and thirty seconds later was having a beer with them.