Today was a nightmare - Vinny the s*** as we are now refering to him completely died this morning - and by completely we mean no engine noise at all. So we had the AA out again and they recovered him to the airport where Dave on his last nerve lay into the comapany for a good 40 minutes on the phone to teh Assistant Manager.
Now this is customer service for you - we were greeted with 2 hot chocolates, given a bigger diesel van (better on costs), given $150 for the ferry crossing due to the size difference, given a complimentary spa day, extended the rental for 2 days for what we have lost and refunded 2 of our originals days back to our accounts. Thats not it either - we are meeting the manager when we return to Auckland... nothing but the best for us! Ewan has taught us well...To be honest we were so at the end of our teathers with the van that this has calmed us down, but had really started to effect our trip to NZ. We will have to see if Thomas (as in the tank engine (because he is massive)) is a better van - who knows...
Anyhow we were able to make it to Glenorchy, 40 miles off Queenstown and home to some of the lord of the rings sets - including Isenguard and the Misty Mountains. Its also the town nearest another location called Paradise. This is Daves new retirement village - its so cut off from evrywhere and so beautiful its no wonder it was used for middle earth. This place is nestled between the lake and the giant mountains with only one road in or out... spectacular.
It really is an amazingly beautiful place - Daves new favourite in all of NZ.
We also made it to Wanaka and free camped in a picnic site in the forest - the stars were tremendous. Off to the glaciers tomorrow...