I do dumb things, part 2.

The internet is being a major pain today, so I'm having a lot of trouble uploading any pics, but for the time being, I thought I would at least tell you about my latest moronic activity!

The first dumb thing I did this trip was attempting to hop over a log and falling on my face - I took a lovely picture of my knees that I hope to post later. They are still a beautiful shade of purple. I also lost my watch that day - I suspect it's on the ground near where we parked - but I'll consider that a corollary dumb thing to the main one of falling down.

The second dumb thing I did was...wait for it...try to drive over a wall. Okay, so I didn't really try to drive over it, and it was only about 18 inches high, but it was still dumb. Here's the story...

Rebecca and I arrived at the Queenstown campsite after a really nice afternoon at Deer Park. We checked in and proceeded to try to find our campsite. The site maps are kind of hit-and-miss, and more often that not we end up in the wrong place, which is what happened this time. I started to turn a corner to get back to where we needed to be and hear a horrendous screeching sound. I stopped immediately - with that sick feeling you get when you know you've really messed up - and Rebecca looked out her window and informed me that I had run over a wall! I had turned the corner too tightly, not seeing such a low wall from my high vantage point, and gotten stranded on top of this wall!

At first, it didn't look too bad. There was no external damage to the side of the van and it looked as if a bolt had simply come loose. I had pushed the water tank up and dislodged the piece that held it to the bottom of the chassis. It looked like all we would have to do is hook it back on. Of course, nothing is ever that easy.

We both tried to lift it back into place, but it wasn't budging. Eventually, two Australian men came over and helped us out - informing us that the piece was bent and we would need a shifter or a spanner (one of those is a wrench, not sure what the other one is). Eventually, one of the Aussies took me to a car repair place, where a very nice Kiwi unbent the part. Then we went to buy some wrenches, and returned to the van, where everything was finally put back together.

I took a picture to show you what an inconspicuous little piece this was, but I can't seem to upload it, so I'll save it for next time. We were very lucky that it wasn't worse though - there is no way the campervan people will realize that anything went wrong, and in the end it cost $10 to buy a wrench to fix what could have been a major problem!

I'll do my best to update on Milford Sound tomorrow - I really want to get pictures up because it's just such a spectacular place! Today we're having a quiet day, with a "Maori cultural experience" tonight, and then tomorrow we're exploring Christchurch, hopefully with Jen (Roheryn) and Victor (NZStrider) for at least part of the day.