New Zealand

G’day!

Well without further ado, we can now proudly announce that we have officially driven from UK to New Zealand in a van (with small cameo appearances from 2 big ships and a few aeroplanes), and our global challenge ‘NZinavan’ has successfully been completed!!! We arrived in a rainy Auckland in mid-winter on the 13th August, exactly 15 weeks after we left Britain, and completely froze after having been in such hot places for so long!

Aside from the English Channel ferry crossing, we drove every inch of the way from humble Hastings in Britain, to the mighty metropolis of Mumbai in India. Our onward overland route was barred by political and beaurocratical (that’s not a word) restrictions in Tibet and China meaning that we had to resort to using a ship to carry the van to New Zealand whilst we flew to meet with it again on the other side. Our trip has taken us across grassy plains, deserts and rivers, through forests, cities and villages, and past whole seas, tribes, nations and even continents. We have driven on 8 lane Autobahns, Pot-holed ‘car-breaker’ tarmac, dirt, sand dunes, mud, loose rocks, snow, and through sewerage pools as well as crystal-clear mountain streams. The temperature has ranged from -1 to +47 degrees Celsius. We have stood under the baking Middle Eastern sun, just as we have the cascading Indian monsoon and the snow of Britain. We have delved 28 meters below sea level to the shores of the Caspian Sea, and up to 5200 meters in the Himalayas. We have crossed 95 degrees of longitude, 180 degrees of latitude, and have driven over 11,000 miles.

The most incredible thing is that the whole way, we never even got one flat tyre! The van just kept on going without even a hiccup. In fact, the only trouble we had was when 2 of the suspension leafs on one of the rear wheels snapped after bouncing over a mountain range continuously for 4 days (understandable). That was easily fixed, and the only other thing we did on the way was change the engine oil – once! We found it quite funny because we arrived in NZ and hired a car, and on the second day the tyre blew out!

From around the middle of Turkey onwards the van started belching out black fumes from the exhaust pipe, especially at altitude, and going up hills. But that’s just because (we discovered) the diesel in these places has around 200 times the amount of sulphur in it (and other nasties no doubt) as it does in Europe…and you wonder why they have poor air quality. When we were going through the dry dusty places (ie. most of the way), emptying the air filter was almost a daily chore. This involved banging it against a wall until there is a sizeable pile of sand/dust on the ground, and you are completely powdered!

Rhona got pregnant the day before we left, yet she still managed to climb a 2500 metre ice capped mountain in Slovakia, survived India in 45 degree heat with morning sickness, and took a rabies injection, antibiotics, and malaria tablets before we even found out! We figured that our baby will either be extremely tough, or will come out with its middle finger up! Now Rhona is 23 weeks in, and has a sizeable bump.

Sometimes the most memorable moments are the small things that make you laugh, cry, shiver or just think. Some of these might have seemed too small to put in the blog, so we have a few of them here.

Indian Laundry is one such memory. Even if you stay in a hotel, what many might not realise is that when you give them your clothes and towels to wash, it is passed on to a laundry boy, who then takes it and hand washes it. This may be done in a private tub, but quite often it seems to go to either a large communal laundry pool or down to a river! It mostly came back crushed, a nice brown colour, and smelling distinctly of stale curry – lovely! Oh how wonderful washing machines, irons and nice smelling detergent are!

One of Rhona’s favourite experiences was all the really pretty clothes, jewlery, and colours we have experienced in many countries, especially Turkey and India. Also how people take real pride in their appearance even if they are just doing their daily chores. The aroma of the spice markets was wonderful with a whole display of interesting and very different ingredients.

For Simon one of the most shocking moments was using a urinal in a restaurant in Kathmandu, only to find out that it was in fact not plumbed in at all, it just emptied itself on the ground at his feet! Lovely!

As we’re talking about toilets, there was another incident in Iran when we desperately needed to empty our portaloo. We passed a fuel station, which was under construction but appeared to have working toilets. There was nobody around so we snatched at the opportunity at last to empty our overflowing waste tank. As we poured away, we got that very satisfied feeling almost as though our sins were being washed away (they were particularly bad this time)! It wasn’t until we had finished and properly cleaned it out that we realised that the foul smelling semi-liquid had appeared oozing out of a bare pipe round the side of the block and had spread all over the building site! “Oops” said we, and planned to leave pronto (we weren’t sure what punishments were dealt for such a crime in Iran). Just then, a truck load of builders arrived back from lunch, and started curiously inspecting the strange blue/green trickle with half digested brown lumps and soggy paper that had mysteriously appeared in their building site! We said our “Salaam”s and cleared off!

Having just confessed that we now actually have to say that among the worst discoveries we have made about the world would have to be the pollution. Something has got to be done about this. Ghastly (that’s a good English word) at best, suffocating at worst, this just represents a dark stain of human pillage on the earth. It’s all seemingly because governments are too interested in trying to become the next world superpower than to look after their own country and people.

Among the best discoveries is certainly the overwhelming power of humanity left in some people that would compel a person with nothing, to offer two dirty travellers with whom they have zero in common, everything they have without want for reward. It moves you to realise that this still exists, and hurts to wonder where this has gone in the western world.

We have seen many wonderful places on our travels, and have certainly been witness to some gloriously enchanting scenery, food, hospitality and culture. We didn’t set off with any grand scheme in mind – we didn’t even raise any money for charity (which was a bit lame), we just had an amazing chance to enjoy some of this planet that has been given to us, and we took it. We had no idea what we would discover about this world we live in, or ourselves, if anything. Maybe we would just come out of the other side with more to offer? You may wonder if we left the UK because we were searching for something, but I think that this trip has proved to us that we were not. If anything it has shown us quite clearly that we have everything we need because our God is going before us! The drive was good and all, but it hasn’t “opened our minds” or “changed us forever” as some would claim. It has mostly made us realise how privileged we have been to have been born and brought up in a country such as Great Britain.

We’re not just talking about wealth here, for one, Britain has world-class scenery: walk around the rugged coast of Cornwall, drive up the breath-taking Glen Coe in Scotland, see the spotless beaches of southern Wales. If you haven’t been to these places then go there, and you will know that you have seen real beauty. We also realised that Britain has good food! From breakfast right up to supper, this is the land of proper nosh – enjoy it! You can get fried breakfast or roast-beef-with-all-the-trimmings in other places, but it just aint the same! As for historic marvels of architecture, just do a tour of Scottish castles; go see Stonehenge, or the tower of London – these all match up to the best of them. When it comes to cities, you might think that the traffic is awful in British cities, but it really isn’t! Nowhere else will you get the romance of walking down the high street of a city of a million people under a castle perched gloriously on a high crag above you than in Edinburgh. Nowhere else will you sample the grandness of Buckingham palace or the houses of parliament on your way to a U2 gig. As far as hospitality goes, well the other thing you just don’t get anywhere else in the world is the welcome of a warm cosy pub where you can sit down in front of a fire to thaw out with a good pint that was brewed just down the road - aaaah! There is also nowhere in the world where there is a coffee shop like Mr Beans! You can enjoy all this without the constant worry of disease carrying mosquitoes, snakes and other nasties. Consider all these things (and we’ve not even started on public freedom), and Great Britain a pretty good place!

We feel incredibly blessed to have been able to do this trip, and have had an ace time doing it, but we still think (in all seriousness) that for us, the best of the world is back in Britain… that is until we got to New Zealand… Wow this place is awesome!! We left the rain of Auckland behind us and headed down to Motueka in the Nelson region of the South Island where we will be spending the next year and a half, and the beauty just blew us away: calm translucent water gives way to golden sands which in turn rise up to snow capped mountains all around you. Every kind of outdoor activity imaginable is at your doorstep and is the best in the world. We have already seen the largest and clearest fresh water springs in the world, seals giving birth, glorious deserted beaches, stunning alpine scenery deep in snow, and all under a bright crystal-clear blue sky. The Nelson region has the highest amount of sunshine-hours in the country and it is rare for two days to go by without one of them being glorious. We feel very at home here – we’re enjoying rather British food (including great fish and chips), the scenery is quite Scottish-like, and so far people have been incredibly friendly and accepting towards us.

After finding a place to live and sorting out various things in Motueka, we headed back up to Auckland to wait for our van to arrive. This turned out to be a tormenting 3 week wait more than what we expected, and when our van finally did emerge from it's dark box it had 6 weeks worth of damp mold growing all over it and everything in it. The quarantine inspectors were about ready to send it the incinerator, but instead recommended that it be given the full deep steam cleaning treatment, everything short of dipping it in acid! Comments such as "you should have left it in India", and "is that a van?" were noted. We reminded them of it's glorious track record but didn't want to displease the people who's decision it would be to let us have it back! After it's embarrassing 'army bath', we took it to the garage to get a Warrant of Fitness (MOT), and the guy took one look at it and basically said "you must be joking!" Sure enough, one look at the underside would make you believe that they dragged it along the bottom of the ocean rather that in 'containerised transport' for the amount of rust it had developed. So, at that point we realised that it was just not even near worth spending any more money on it than we already had getting it here, and we are ending this story with our most stalwart companion going to the scrap heap. What a dissapointment...not mention money down the squat loo. It got here, and completed the mission, but we should have left it behind!

So now we are very much looking forward to staying in one place for a while. We have found somewhere to live, Simons flying course is now under way, and the transition to our new start seems to have gone incredibly smoothly. On that note we are saying ta for now, and thank you so much to all the people who have read our blog and been so positive about it. We are especially thankful to those who have been praying for us. We really appreciate it. It is safe to say that it kept us going at times! Still watch this space, there’s talk of a hard copy of this, and who knows what we’ll get up to next!

We will have more adventures, but that’s another story!

The End