I managed to get some ferg Berger in Queenstown (breakfast as well as lunch) when it opened at 8am and then left on a bus for $10 pick up my rental car and get to christchurch at around 730pm. I stopped at several places along the way for food and for views. Clay cliffs were supposedly a scene out of lord of the rings and took the most time to visit. I got some sweet and sour chicken Chinese food in a small town, which I had mixed reviews about but did the job. I checked into my room, went for a run and then did some more laundry. I’ve been running Out of socks and underwear fast, plus it seems I have been wearing the same shorts over and over again. I got these awesome shorts in Australia and then after a week or so realized they say California on them, defeating the purpose of buying “Australian” clothes.....
In Christchurch I got 12 hours of sleep the first night, met a guy that told me some spots to check out the next day, checked out those spots and then met with a friend of mine that I met in Greece two years ago. I greatly enjoyed tearing through the hills of New Zealand refreshing my beyond limits driving skills I learned in contracting driver training. The second night my buddy picked me up and showed me the city center, explaining how he moved here a week before the huge earthquakes and going into details why they were so bad. Though they weren’t terribly high on the Richter scale they were unusually shallow and also more vertical in movement than horizontal, making them rather devastating. Christchurch was a pretty city and really quite quiet. It had personality, people were interacting with us from their cars, cars were burning their wheels, Reving their engines, talking to us on the street. It was small, quiet, but interactive. Once he dropped me off, he was interested in seeing what the hostel looked like in his home town so I took him in and gave him a tour. I ran into a friend of mine and we ended up playing some game called rage cup that Caleb had shown us. We 7 guys had a guys night and I didn’t get much sleep. The next day I swapped rental cars and headed to Nelson, making my way north to Auckland over about 8 days.
The rental car lady gave me a hard time about cameras because I didn’t know they had speed cameras. I said I’ve been speeding all over and I’m probably going to get massive tickets. She half seriously agreed I would probably get some, but my friend Caleb who’s been living here said I would be fine.
This drive to Nelson was particularly interesting because I was pulled over for the first time in 7 years. Apparently someone reported me to the police for erratic driving and passing in no passing zones while not being able to see / being dangerous. When the cop pulled me over I almost forgot what to do it had been so long. Caleb helped remind me to get my license out etc. I found it extremely weird I was being pulled over because I had just been following traffic for miles talking with Caleb - I was not speeding or anything and we just thought maybe I had a tail light out or something. The police officer was quite formal and expressed that I had been reported for serious infractions. He asked if I had anything to drink and immediately breathalyzed me. He then asked if I remembered any erratic driving - passing in no pass zones etc. I said no, in fact, I drove rather safe, and I don’t take any risks. I’m actually like a grandma most of the time. He said he’d take a look at the film that the person sends in and either give me a ticket or a warning and call me on my local New Zealand number.
Thank goodness they sent a video of my erratic driving, the police officer reviewed it and called me back letting me know there was nothing erratic about it, and that there won’t even be a warning. He said my driving was perfectly legal and that the person that reported me was a bit too over precious.
Shortly after that phone call my rental company called me- that cute lady that gave me such a hard time about all the speeding I’ve been doing. She said “ken, we’ve got reports from the public you’re driving erratically” I laughed and explained what happened and she responded with a half serious half entertained motherly response to be safe. Never a dull moment. Someone really had it out for me, which made me very happy to be able to respond with the fact that I’ve been doing a good job of following all the rules and respecting the country as much as possible. Had I decided to have a beer for lunch that could have been a very different outcome. Things like this that I can’t predict are why I take a lot of rules so seriously, even though I didn’t do anything wrong, I could have gotten into a lot of trouble if I didn’t do everything right.
I dropped Caleb off and made it into Nelson around 730 again. I checked in, showered, grabbed a solid dinner at a nice restaurant on the river by myself, went back, got 8 hours of sleep and woke up early to head to the ferry and drop off the car at 9 am in picton. It had never occurred to me that I should have booked the ferry ahead of time, the first ferry was not running on Mondays, the second ferry was full, thankfully the last ferry had a spot. For 60 nz dollars I reserved a seat for the 2 pm ferry - five hours wait and three hours on the ferry- there goes my entire day. I’ve been meaning to catch up on blogging, and I plan for these kind of hiccups, so arguably I could be thankful I finally have some time to write / edit / spend some time relaxing. I asked the ticket lady if there was anything to do in picton, and she just replied “no”. Lol. Perfect. I don’t mind sitting at a marina for the afternoon relaxing. I do wish I could have seen the beaches at Abel Tasman area, but then again I've seen enough beaches for now so I decided to keep making my way north instead.
In Christchurch I got 12 hours of sleep the first night, met a guy that told me some spots to check out the next day, checked out those spots and then met with a friend of mine that I met in Greece two years ago. I greatly enjoyed tearing through the hills of New Zealand refreshing my beyond limits driving skills I learned in contracting driver training. The second night my buddy picked me up and showed me the city center, explaining how he moved here a week before the huge earthquakes and going into details why they were so bad. Though they weren’t terribly high on the Richter scale they were unusually shallow and also more vertical in movement than horizontal, making them rather devastating. Christchurch was a pretty city and really quite quiet. It had personality, people were interacting with us from their cars, cars were burning their wheels, Reving their engines, talking to us on the street. It was small, quiet, but interactive. Once he dropped me off, he was interested in seeing what the hostel looked like in his home town so I took him in and gave him a tour. I ran into a friend of mine and we ended up playing some game called rage cup that Caleb had shown us. We 7 guys had a guys night and I didn’t get much sleep. The next day I swapped rental cars and headed to Nelson, making my way north to Auckland over about 8 days.
The rental car lady gave me a hard time about cameras because I didn’t know they had speed cameras. I said I’ve been speeding all over and I’m probably going to get massive tickets. She half seriously agreed I would probably get some, but my friend Caleb who’s been living here said I would be fine.
This drive to Nelson was particularly interesting because I was pulled over for the first time in 7 years. Apparently someone reported me to the police for erratic driving and passing in no passing zones while not being able to see / being dangerous. When the cop pulled me over I almost forgot what to do it had been so long. Caleb helped remind me to get my license out etc. I found it extremely weird I was being pulled over because I had just been following traffic for miles talking with Caleb - I was not speeding or anything and we just thought maybe I had a tail light out or something. The police officer was quite formal and expressed that I had been reported for serious infractions. He asked if I had anything to drink and immediately breathalyzed me. He then asked if I remembered any erratic driving - passing in no pass zones etc. I said no, in fact, I drove rather safe, and I don’t take any risks. I’m actually like a grandma most of the time. He said he’d take a look at the film that the person sends in and either give me a ticket or a warning and call me on my local New Zealand number.
Thank goodness they sent a video of my erratic driving, the police officer reviewed it and called me back letting me know there was nothing erratic about it, and that there won’t even be a warning. He said my driving was perfectly legal and that the person that reported me was a bit too over precious.
Shortly after that phone call my rental company called me- that cute lady that gave me such a hard time about all the speeding I’ve been doing. She said “ken, we’ve got reports from the public you’re driving erratically” I laughed and explained what happened and she responded with a half serious half entertained motherly response to be safe. Never a dull moment. Someone really had it out for me, which made me very happy to be able to respond with the fact that I’ve been doing a good job of following all the rules and respecting the country as much as possible. Had I decided to have a beer for lunch that could have been a very different outcome. Things like this that I can’t predict are why I take a lot of rules so seriously, even though I didn’t do anything wrong, I could have gotten into a lot of trouble if I didn’t do everything right.
I dropped Caleb off and made it into Nelson around 730 again. I checked in, showered, grabbed a solid dinner at a nice restaurant on the river by myself, went back, got 8 hours of sleep and woke up early to head to the ferry and drop off the car at 9 am in picton. It had never occurred to me that I should have booked the ferry ahead of time, the first ferry was not running on Mondays, the second ferry was full, thankfully the last ferry had a spot. For 60 nz dollars I reserved a seat for the 2 pm ferry - five hours wait and three hours on the ferry- there goes my entire day. I’ve been meaning to catch up on blogging, and I plan for these kind of hiccups, so arguably I could be thankful I finally have some time to write / edit / spend some time relaxing. I asked the ticket lady if there was anything to do in picton, and she just replied “no”. Lol. Perfect. I don’t mind sitting at a marina for the afternoon relaxing. I do wish I could have seen the beaches at Abel Tasman area, but then again I've seen enough beaches for now so I decided to keep making my way north instead.
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