Holidaying Underthinking it styles Part 2.

So with a packed car, and a plan in mind, the convoy left Dunedin at roughly Noon on December 30th. The first stop was Poolburn Dam.

I think that Gandalf the Grey also Holidays here.

Poolburn itself is in the middle of nowhere, and the Dam is a further 13 km from the township, along a long and dusty road, and this where the first issue arose. We had meandered our way up slowly stopping for a nice little picnic at Dunback, where it appeared we were the only people not at the local bowls tournament.

For your safety and the safety of others always bowl between the flags

We stopped for an ice cream in Oturehua,whilst this was in the middle of nowhere there are still amenities such as stores, garage, and toilets. The next part of the journey became a lot less civilized.

I am pretty sure this guy passed me.

Given the relative genteel journey so far, the next moment, which really set in motion the rest of the holiday came as somewhat of a surprise. As I was casually driving along, by car started spewing smoke at me, and I could hear a boiling sound, which is less than ideal.

Unfortunately for me, I did not have Megan Fox nearby to perfom car maintence

I had no water in my car to top up, the overheating vehicle, and my travel companions had left me behind, not being able to see me in their rear view mirror due to the dust. This is where my holiday was at a crossroads, I could let this get to me, and give up on the dream. Or realise this was the wind blowing me in a different direction, and to just go with the flow.
As I stood there in the burning midday sun, with the dust swirling, and no one for miles, I firstly began to wish I had brought Bear Grylls with me, then remmbering we would have been drinking urine that thought subsidied. My ideal travel companion at this time would have been Macgyver.

Don't worry Aaron, I just whipped up this plane, from the contents of your trunk*

* Note Macgyver is American so he uses trunk.....


By this time Ian had returned, we decided to continue on in his car, and decide what to do over a couple of Brewskis at Botts camp. This seems like an easy idea until Ian pulled out the intructions to Botts camp, these things were more vague than Ziggy Stardust's gender

Man, Woman or other?

In fact to decipher these instructions you would need some one with a PhD in Physics, luckily for us at that point Rory turned up. (Rory has a PhD pending in Physics) and after Ian going on a 3km run and  Rory and I climbing a large rock we located the camp.Unfortunatley the terrain was more than a match for the Volvo S40.

Blatant false advertising

 We were picked up in some 4 wheel drives and finally got to the campsite, which was being buttered by a strong wind, so after a few beers and a couple of rounds of swing ball it was decided to tow the car to a safer location, and find a place to sleep for the night.

A young Sharapova and Nadal learning there trade, note two handed back hand.

After getting to Ophir we set up camp for the night, and decided we would repack one car, and just continue on together, this meant that Aviemore was off the table, so it would be Twizel for New years.

Car Tetris is a great holiday pastime.