Break Adventures: day 1

I would like to prepare my readers for a story on how something can go absolutely wrong but can end up fantastically right.

The party consisted of six people.

From left to right: PT, Matt, Rachel, Nora, Alex, and Dale.
Unfortunately, this is the only photo of all of us that I have access to presently.

Our plans were such:

• Rent a car from Monday to Sunday
• Drive down to Te Anau (8-10 hours southwest of Christchurch)
• Stay in a hostel Monday night
  
• Do the Kepler Track for 3-4 days (Tuesday to Saturday)
• Stay in a hostel Saturday night
• Drive home to Christchurch Sunday to drop off the car by 5PM

We ended up doing something drastically different.

The first day, however, went almost entirely according to plan. Dale and PT pulled up in the Rent-A-Dent van at Ilam Apartments at 8:30 AM and we loaded in our gear.


The drive was long but we had iPods and an FM transmitter so we had music all the way down. We switched up seats often and settled up on money for the hostel and the car rental. I offered to pay for all of the gas and collect money at home which is just what we did.

We found out that one of the seats could swivel around and we left it facing backwards the rest of the trip.


About two hours into the drive we got a chip in the windshield of the car and had to find a place to stop and get it fixed. The repair cost only 55 NZ and only stopped us for about 30 minutes.

Those last two photos are Dale's. He's given me permission to use his photos in my blog without citation. All photos of me tramping were taken by Dale, and if you see a particularly beautiful photo like the one above the crack in the windshield, go ahead and assume he took it. This applies to all of the Break Adventures posts. As of now I only have access to photos taken by Dale and I as neither Matt nor the ladies have uploaded theirs yet. I think Dale is a master of the point-and-shoot digital camera and an excellent photographer.

Here's the room we stayed in. A six bed dorm for a party of six at 30NZ/person.


It rained and gusted wind all night. I slept well with the exception of awakening to a few particularly loud moments in the storm when rain beat hard on the wall by my head.