Day 1

Tuesday 3rd of May

First I had to do my unprepared Maori speech, not fun I can tell you...but it turned out it went okay, I got 7.5 out of 10, so not too bad.

After that I went home to pack my bag and go to the place where we could pick up our 'home' for the next 12 days. It reminded me of a gypsy song we used to sing when I was little:

Mijn huisje is niet op palen gebouwd, het is niet van steen, maar het is van hout, 4 wielen eronder een paardje ervoor, zo reizen wij de wereld door, juju sjok sjok, m'n paardje ervoor en ik op de bok, juju sjok sjok m'n paardje ervoor en ik op de bok, rinkel tinkel tamboerijn, oh 't is zo vrolijk oh 't is zo fijn, of 't is zo fijn om zigeuner te ziijjjnnnn...

Anyway, Ulli brought us to 'lower Hutt' where we picked up our campervan. It looked really cute, our little home on wheels. My mom always said she would never drive on the left side (the wrong side :) ) but since everyone does so, she just had to!

Our first destination was Waikanae where friends of friends of my mom lived, she didn't know them but she had some gifts for them. So we set out to drive there.

I have to give my mom all the credit, it seemed as if she had never driven on the other side of the road. We took a scenic route through the mountains, oh well no better time to plunge into deep water (dunno if that expression is right...) than immediately...and so there we were in our van on this really really narrow road. At one point this guy coming towards us signalled us: Watch out there has been a little landslide up ahead???

Slowly we came round the corner, and there it was, a huge pile of sand and branches covering more than half of the road. We were barely able to pass. Picture this: One side a mountainwall rising up with a big pile of sand on that side. On the other side a sheer cliff without a fence or sth...sweet as..

But we managed, (mom managed) and we were on our merry way. I must say the people we were bringing the gifts were very surprised to see us. hihi it was so funny...

After coffee with them we went to get some food (chips and burgers) and searched for a place to stay.
So we just took a random exit from the moterway and ended up on a dead end street...
It was not exactly a dead end, suppose you would have driven further...you would have ended up on...the beach

Sweet as!

It seemed like a good spot to spend the night...

(to be continued)