TOWED (this has nothing to do with food)

Jan 29th, 2010
Still no surf in Gisborne. We’ve had some bad car juju, but the engine seems fine. The day after we bought it in Auckland we got towed, the trunk lock started giving us trouble and we have tried about 80 different ways to put up curtains, with plenty of help and little success. Last night we tood a road that led to a marine reserve to park for the night. And got stuck in the sand. We tried for about 2 hrs to dig it out, which only seemed to help the van fall deeper. We tried jamming flat pieces of wood around the tires for traction, which didn’t work that well.

Covered in sand, I decided to put on my walking shoes and go for help when suddenly we saw headlights coming our way (it was dusk at this point). “Y’oll roight thea?” said the man in a big truck with a Department of Conservation logo on the side. “A little stuck.” I replied. “I know! I’ve been watching you from the camera.” He points to the top of the bluff and sure enough, there was a small camera on top of a long pole pointed straight at us. The man’s name was Jamie, a curly haired Kiwi who monitors the marine reserve via the camera for the DOC with his equally curly haired dog, who’s name I couldn’t understand. I imagined him and his cronies watching a monitor taking bets on our fate. “Saw yous diggin’, took dog out for a wok, came back and yous stull thea! I’ll tow y’aut! He says with a happy voice. (By the way, I’m trying my best to convey the Kiwi accent)

The towing process took a while. We broke 2 tow ropes, Jamie almost got stuck himself, and he had to go home for stronger rope. On the final pull, Jamie really went for it. Kris was behind the wheel and I was supervising the scene. Our van was hoisted out of the ditch. It fish-tailed and tipped onto the right two wheels, then flopped over on the left two wheels before it bounced to a stop. Our heavy van, which was barely budging out of the sand pit, all of the sudden looked like a feather in the wind. Kris got out of the car and I tried not to look totally freaked out. “I was not expecting that,” he said. We were out of the ditch, thanks to our Kiwi savior, and it only cost $20 to fix the bumper. I wish I got pictures after this, but our stuff shifted around so much that I couldn't find my camera.

The next day we received word from a couple of WWOOF stays. We have one set for mid-Feb so we will look for a place to take us short notice until then.