burning cars and frozen forests
Today is day three of our road trip. 'Our' being myself and cat who had the misfortune of being sat next to me on the coach when i said 'lets hire a car and drive places'.... places of course being nice ideas in my head but slightly incorpreal in character. Anyway Sunday we picked up the car and were on our way. Not having driven for two years speeding along NZ's twisty roads was practically and ends in itself to me. About half an hour later whilst stopping on the basis of 'ahhh thats a nice view' we got out of the car to be slightly disturbed by billowing and acrid fumes from under the bonnet...oh dear... Opening it up we found the oil cap resting neatly beside the hole it was intended to cover, and an oil spillage covering the engine that Shell would have been proud of. Oil was burning off on the hot bits (notice slight lack of manly engine knowledge) and creating the smoke, so a t-shirt was sacrifced to redeem the situation. The evening we stayed in Invercargill, a place which would make the description 'grey' sound like a complement. The streets were dead, not a sole to be seen, just the occasional clapped out motor rattling down the street like some laterday tumbleweed. The next day we set off to explore the Caitlins. This is a beautiful area at the soutern tip of NZ. Rolling hill meets forest meets golden beaches and azure seas. Driving unsurfaced roads dodging pot holes all day also makes driving entertaining. We took a wander to a waterfall and by the sea to a fossilized forest - a prehistoric rainforest petrified into the rocks. The area is also full of wildlife, I had a close incounter with an elephant seal which i mistook for a lump of drift wood, until i noticed it was furry had a face and moved.
posted by justplainnigel @ 1:56 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home