That camper has only just got back on the road and still isn't perfect.
Was a great day in the office today...
I'm not one who likes stopping much when I'm driving, like to get to where I'm going. But today I just had to stop and snap that pic. Unfortunately the crappy camera in my phone didn't do the scene anywhere near justice, it was awesome. It looks like I'm in shade, but it was gloriously sunny, as was all the way up to the mountain and the definition of the mountain and bush in real life was stunning. It's Mount Hutt, the biggest ski field in the region, season closed a few weeks now though.
Had to stop a few Ks down the road again to snap another pic...
Once again, the pic does not do the scene justice, but a bit better. The river is the Rakaia as it breaks through 'the gorge' before it expands out again into a wide braided river. 30k to the east the only other bridge over it is well over a mile long. Great Salmon river to.
Today was supposed to be the 2nd day of my weekend. However, on Friday I air freighted a fridge down to Queenstown for 1 of our contractors to fit into a camper that had a fridge that had packed a sad. However, when he came to fit it.... it was the wrong one! So much for going by the van's documentation. So today one had to be taken down to Tekapo to drop off with the fella. no other sod would do it, so I swapped my day off for Wednesday and, while I'd have preferred to get on with stuff at home, had a lovely drive out.
Its a 2 1/2 hour drive down to Tekapo. The first half is dead boring... a virtually dead straight drive down SH1 to Rangitata. From then on, its one of my favourite drives through Geraldine, Fairlie, through MacKenzie Country to Lake Tekapo. Its a great drive in the Freelanders, the best was in my son's Rover 220 Tomcat, and is funnily enough a good drive in a manual camper. Today's chariot though was a 2.7 2000 Toyota Hiace mini van with 450+ K on the clock and a gearbox unwilling to let the engine challenge the hills and twisty roads... a very frustrating drive.
On the way home, when I got to Geraldine, I took the 'inland scenic route' that skirts along the foothills and edge of the mountains through Mayfield, Windwhistle, Glentunnel etc. Adds 20 minutes to the journey, but a lovely road, where I took those pics.
