New Zealand

We arrived at the camp area which is more like a picnic spot next to the state highway. As We already had a long day, we wanted an early night so we settled on camping there. The site itself was a beautiful setting under some big trees close enough to a river that you could hear the water rumble, and we had the site to ourselves.

Isabel made an award winning pasta and we enjoyed that with some NZ wine yet again. After dinner we retired to bed almost as the sun set.

With my SA baggage I never felt quite at ease as we were basically just next to a big road with cars and trucks passing by every few minutes. Just after midnight Isabel woke me up to say that a mysterious car just arrived at the site and was parked on the opposite end, when we looked out the window it clearly looked like a normal vehicle and not a camper, in other words not allowed to stay over there as only self contained vehicles (onboard toilet facility) is allowed to camp there, it seemed very dodgy. All sorts of scenarios went through my head as to what this car was up to and how I am going to keep us safe as our only line of defense was that the camper was locked from the inside. While thinking all these things I tried put Isabel's worries to ease so she can at least get some sleep while I lie awake with my ears wide open to try and hear whats going on outside. Luckily just after 1 am the car drove off and we were able to get some sleep.

The driver was probably just needed to rest before continuing on, not something I would do in SA but in NZ it's seemingly fine.

In the morning we enjoyed a nice muesli and yogurt breakfast before heading on to Able Tasman national park.

{Roedolf}

I zooshed up a freestyle camp pasta. Pretty much a bolognaise sauce. Pretty epic I must say!! I didn't fully agree with Roedolf's instructions to do it outside to avoid sandflies coming into the camper while i cook but his " managerial" comments were valid in the end and everything was warm. Oh Roedolf cut some cheddar in perfect mini squares, I thought we can skip the cheese as the van don't have a grater.

South island is probably one of the safest places but my imagination went 360 with our midnight friends

{Isabel}Read more