The day that went a bit wrong

So today is Valentines Day, we were supposed to be heading on our heli hike of Franz Josef today, but as the weather was set to be awful we rescheduled for tomorrow. As it is we made the right choice. Although the day began with cloud and some hints of sunshine, the rain did eventually set in.
Our day though started with much worse news, our car wouldn't start. Similar to the other day, it just made a whirring noise instead of kicking into action. Thankfully we had it parked on a pitch in a campsite so there are worse places for this to happen, but we were also miles from a proper city and so we had to hope that it was nothing major. We thought it was likely the battery, a kind woman knocked on our window in the night to let us know that our lights were still on (Robs fault that one!) so fingers crossed we only need a jump start. We also had to hope though that the one local garage in town could fix it before tomorrow morning otherwise we would have to postpone our heli hike once again!
With no answer when we phoned the garage we ended up walking into town to see if we could find them in person. We found out that he was currently in Franz Josef on a job and so we would have to wait an hour or so before he would be back.
We walked to the cafe next door for some brunch and a cup of tea and just to make the day even better, my flip flop broke. I knew they were on the way out but really!? Today!? It was a bit of a walk back to camp and I didn't really fancy it barefoot, especially as it was beginning to rain.
I bought some more from the shop by the cafe explaining my situation. The guy behind the till had a look to see about fixing them but there was nothing to be done. Turns out the only flip flops in my size were bright barbie pink and had been squished int he tub so I found out after putting them on that they also hurt my feet to walk. Urgh!
What was good however was the delicious breakfast. Rob had a full English and I had a Rosti with bacon and egg. There was far too much for me to eat but it was really really tasty! Thumbs up at last!
Once the rain let up Rob decided to go back to the car and grab a couple of things, he also promised to bring back my trainers so I could walk home comfortably, not before I went and bought some nice thick Merino socks though as the cold had now set in and my feet were both frozen and been attacked my sandflies! I was determined that they would not be having my blood today, not on top of everything else.

Later in the day when the sun finally started to shine we eventually got a call from the mechanic to say he would be able to come around to take a look. A couple of reminders later and he was at the camp. Rob was right, it was a flat battery. He also said we had a loose terminal, so it wouldn't have been charging properly either. Also we had flooded the engine trying to get it to start so many times so my goodness did it make a noise and kick out some fumes when he tried to get it going. I was worried he would break the thing he had to rev it so much. Eventually though, after some coughing and spluttering, she started up. Thank god!

He advised we drive her for at least half an hour so we set off up and down the very straight road by the camp, up and down, up and down, up and down. The views from here of the Mountains and Glacier are pretty great though so it wasn't too much trouble. We also spotted the biggest bull we have ever seen. He had so much muscle you could have drawn around them and got one of those drawing showing you all the delicious cuts of meat.
With a working car and a sigh of relief we decided to go and enjoy a celebratory burger and pizza for tea from one of the local restaurants. We opted out of the higher rated trip adviser ones due to ques and one being quite generic looking and went back to Cafe Neve where we had been before. So glad, they were very rushed it would seem so service was a little slow and the waiter kept forgetting things but he was too nice and apologetic to be annoyed and the food was great.
All in all a bit of a mixed day considering it was Valentines day but it ended well and we were still able to get on the Glacier tomorrow. Can't wait!Read more