You’ve gotta slay dragons to win princesses…

Tara and I rented a wicked campervan while we were in the south. For 6 days we lived in it – it was our home. These wicked campervans are famous for their designs and graffiti plastered on the outside. The designs are loud and the vans are fun to drive. Our van was a Gene Simmons van. Hilarious. We named her Geena and she was a beaut. All you see on the roads in NZ are campervans. They’re everywhere – everyone here is traveling. We parted from Cecilia (Noel’s car who treated us well on our trip to the south) and Noel for that time. Noel decided to keep going further south. We hung around Queenstown area then our plans were to head to Christchurch and work our way back up the east side of the south island. I did most of the driving as I learned very early on that Tara doesn’t do well on the left side of the road! She was happy to do the small trips and so was I. Hehehe…sorry Tara you know I love you but it was a bit scary when you were behind the wheel especially the one time when you ran us off the road because something caught your eye – it’s like you forgot you were driving. Luckily we weren’t traveling fast. It was so fun to be out on the open road and park anywhere to sleep - Not so fun when you wanted to go to the bathroom or brush your teeth. Thank god for public bathrooms. No running water can lead to one stinky van and don’t let our pretty faces fool you – we smelled really bad. One morning in Queenstown we woke up to frost. I don’t think I’ve ever been that cold in my life. We didn’t have extra blankets. I woke up sore from being so tense from trying to keep warm in fetal position all night. Tara and I both couldn't sleep – it was too cold – that sucked. Ahhh, the open road…destination, anywhere.

as usual, check out my pictures…http://gallery.me.com/monicahutchinson#100283