Grotty: the end

We met Teresa and Kristina (two German girls from BUNAC who were going to drive with us) at Grotty (the van) and set off at 10:30am for Palmerston North.


(This is actually a picture from the ferry, two days later. But I digress...)


We were driving along, enjoying the scenery, and the smiley face stickers on just about every flat surface.

Everything was going okay until we got to Lake Taupo and Grotty started getting confused about shifting. Then he got really confused about acceleration. Then he stalled out halfway up a hill. Actually, stalling is putting it lightly. The whole engine seized up, so that when three Maori guys pulled over to help us, they couldn't even roll it down the hill. We called a tow, but it was a Sunday, so we weren't sure how long it would take. Paul (the most talkative of the Maori fellas) sent the other two back for his truck and his tools. He managed to get the drive shaft to come out with a hammer, but had forgotten about the parking break. He miraculously was able to duck out of the way, but the van rolled past us all and slammed into his Isuzu Trooper-type vehicle. We discovered fortunately that it had done absolutely no damage to the truck, only to Grotty, who was having a distinctly bad day. Somehow we all made it backwards down the hill. After retrieving the drive shaft out of the road.
Paul offered to buy the truck off me, and I told him he could have it for a ride into town. The German girls elected to hitchhike into Palmerston North without us. The guys dropped us off at the youth hostel in Taupo and we gladly went to sleep early after a completely absurd day. We caught the first train out of Taupo this morning and we're coming into Wellington now, getting ready to catch the ferry tomorrow morning over onto the South Island.


Sitting on the roadside, trying to move the van-- in any direction.