Dunedin - Christchurch

We had to get the van back in Christchurch by 3pm and we wanted to drop our stuff off at the Airbnb beforehand so we set our alarms for 6am. We eventually managed to drag ourselves out of bed and were on the road by 7:30am. I did the first 3 hours and then Simon took over after lunch. It wasn't all plain sailing though. We had to return the van with a full tank of diesel and we knew there was a cheap garage in Ashburton. We therefore didn't really want to fill up beforehand but we were running low on fuel. Around 80km from Ashburton the petrol tank read around 86km to empty. We therefore decided to risk it for a biscuit and soldiered on but I can tell you now that was a silly plan. Around 40km out of Ashburton, the gauge started decreasing dramatically and before we knew it we had less than 25km to empty. At this point we quickly googled the nearest petrol station which was 12km, crossed our fingers and headed in that direction. Around 9km from the garage the gauge went to empty and not long after that the van started to struggle! We were in the middle of nowhere and we definitely weren't going to make it. We carried on until the van cut out altogether. Now despite paying the zero excess waiver, if you break down because you're a muppet and run out of fuel you have to cover all the recovery costs yourself. As if by luck though, we happened to break down outside one of the only houses for miles around where there was a chap sat in the garden. Simon went in to see if he could give us a ride to the station and he very kindly agreed. He even had a jerry can which was last filled up with diesel. Someone was looking out for us today! I'm so pleased as 9km was a very long way to walk and even then we probably wouldn't be able to buy a jerry can. Simon went off with the chap in his truck whilst I stayed with the van. It then wasn't long until we were on our way again. Fortunately, we didn't run into any more hiccups and we made it to Christchurch in time to pack up our things, empty the van and drop our bits off at the Airbnb.

And that marks the end of our journey in the campervan which we fondly named Clifford or Cliff for short. It has been a love, hate relationship but he did us well on our 6,899 km adventure around New Zealand.Read more