The Quest for Water, continued

Because we’ve found so many free dumpsites in the cities and towns that we don’t want to pay for water if we don’t have to, so we headed south with the bleach water still in the water tank. We stayed overnight in a Department of Conservation basic (e.g. no amenities, but free!!) campsite and we hit the road at dawn, unshowered, headed towards ChCh. We were driving right on the South Pacific ocean and five minutes into our trip, Lewis saw a seal sleeping on a rock by the water so we stopped to snap a pic or two. We pulled the RV over and got out and walked to the embankment and as we approached, seals appeared everywhere! They had been there the whole time but they blended right into the rocks. Imagine that – animals sleeping in an area where they blend in to hide from predators. Who’d have thunk it?

It's a hole!

Afterwards, we continued on to ChCh without finding a free dumpsite. In my booklet, I found that there was a free site in ChCh but since we weren’t going to be near it, I delayed going until we had explored the city. Keep in mind that these city sites are usually a hole in the ground and a hose and they’re located at a pull off in the road and that is what we were expecting. Holes in the ground are generally open 24 hours…

After our adventures in ChCh, it was getting late so we headed to the dumpsite to find that it was actually part of the city dump and that it closed at 4:30. Having hot showered in two days, I made the executive decision to stay in a holiday park with a shower that night. We drive around the corner and into a nice park only to find that it too was closed. Executive decision overruled. It was back to the free site that I had located before with no shower.

The book says you can camp here, but the fence says no.

There were three sites outside of ChCh that I had identified before so we headed to them only to find that the first one was not there, the second one was fenced off and marked no trespassing, and the third was little more than a wide spot in the road overlooking a lake. By this time it was after midnight and we had been up since 5am. We threw it in park and put down for the night right there in the wide spot.

Fresh air! It smelled so much better afterward.

After three days of three people with no showers and a week of rainy weather, the rig was starting to get damp and smell really bad so the next morning I scrapped all of our plans that we had to explore the local seal colony et al, and we made our way down the road to a real holiday camp where we put in around 2pm and spent the day taking showers, doing laundry, and cleaning out the rig. And we finally got water.

The holiday park we stayed at was really nice. I mean, it was an RV park so the buildings were block with tin roofs and it wasn’t the Biltmore, but everything was clean. I mean, it was like they had Lewis and Babette on staff keeping everything neat and tidy. The showers were spotless; the kitchen was so clean that you could eat off the floor; they even had a little hand sink to wash your hands at the dumpsite. We took advantage of this and cooked in the kitchen instead of the RV and there we met some fellow campers: Mr. and Mrs. Rosen are kiwis that live in Picton to the north. They have been campers and trampers all their lives and, after a long conversation with them about kiwi culture, they invited us to camp at their house when we return to Picton.

I think I shall take them up on their offer and then I shall add them to my Christmas card list. ☺