Our van is fixed!

We woke up today optimistic that we'd be getting our van fixed up and back on the road. Knowing that it had been bank holiday we were worried that garages would be quite busy today so we made sure we were packed up and ready to go by 9ish. I rung the rental company who found somewhere in Lower Hutt near where we've been staying that they wanted us to take it to within the hour. It wasn't too far away so after dropping it off there we were told to come back in an hour and were pointed in the direction of the nearest coffee shop. It was a nice cafe that did good coffee but it was so small and busy that we felt we couldn't sit and occupy a table for an hour without buying lots of drinks. After one coffee each we discovered there was a shopping centre near by so we thought we'd have a walk around to kill some time and free up a table for someone else. Eventually the hour was up and we headed back to discover that the battery had been replaced and the new one is charging when plugged in and when the van drives. The rental company had already paid for it as well so that was another great help. Once we'd left the garage Nick phoned up many auto electricians to see if we could get our lights sorted. We managed to get a slot at 2pm for a garage nearby so we took the opportunity inbetween to do some food shopping. When 2pm came the garage didn't have a high enough roof for our van so I had to drive in as far as I could and luckily it was far enough to leave some pavement space behind us. It took about 45 minutes for the guy to fix the headlight and get the indicator light bulb replaced and finally we have a fixed up van and we can now move on out of Wellington. We made our way north along the west coast and stopped at Raumati Beach. It wasn't much of a beach, more like rocks on the sea shore but it was nice to be out of the city and enjoying the scenery once again. We did find a beach in the end next to Queen Elizabeth Park so we spent some time walking along the sand. It was recommended that we charged up our new battery at a powered site so we located the one with best reviews on Campermate and headed there. It seemed to be a Christian community and all the facilities were clean which is the main thing. We made the most of having an oven and made homemade pizzas while we got some washing done. We met a man called Barry in the kitchen who is in his 60s. He got talking to Nick quite a lot and opened up that he'd recently inherited 43 thousand dollars from his mum passing, a mum he didn't seem to know it seemed. Sadly he owns nothing but the tent, clothes and bike he's been travelling with and has no idea where to go in life with this money. Nick spent time talking to him about different ways he could use the money and also recommend going to get some advice on the renting and property market. He seemed eternally grateful to Nick for spending the time to talk to him. Nick passed along his email and phone number only to find out that Barry doesn't have a phone or an email address but has promised to message if he ever gets either. After showers we spent the evening playing games and looking into where our newly fixed van will take us next.Read more