The Adventure Never Ends

My apologies for missing yesterday's blogging, but I assure you, this story is worth the wait.

Yesterday, Jon and I had decided that we needed to get to Ohakune (the closest town) to get ourselves a bank account. I need to have a bank account before I start my job on Wednesday, otherwise I don't get paid. So, the moment Jon gets out of work, at 3:30, we check when the bank closes (at 4:30) and we book it out of our house to go hitchhike the 35 km to Ohakune.

About five minutes after we got to the street, a guy picks us up. He is a young looking man, who was traveling to his home all the way from Sydney, where he works, and so has probably had a long drive from the nearest airport. He wasn't going the exact direction we were planning on going, but said he would take us as far as he was driving. After we got in we told him the story of how we needed to get to the bank before it closed, and he ended up driving us all the way there. That guy was really chill. He said he used to do a lot of hitchhiking, so he likes picking people up nowadays.

Ok, so now we are in Ohakune. We get a bank account, no problem. The town is pretty cute and we decide to stay and have a bit of food since neither Jon nor I had had lunch. By the time we were on our way back home, it was getting a bit late, and the sun was beginning to set. We figure there will be no problem finding a ride back home. Off we go, holding up our thumbs on the side of the road, walking and talking all the while.

We soon leave the town. No one has picked us up yet. The speed limit sign on the side of the road says 100km/hr. This is now a freeway. Cars are whirring by us, and the hopes of us getting a ride are slim. We talk about it, and we figure we could make it to the crossing the guy from the car earlier was talking about in about 2 hours. No problem! We keep walking.

As the sky gets darker and it begins to drizzle, we are forced to rethink our decision. If we are not going to get a ride all night, (and we had learned our lesson about getting rides in the rain,) then walking home would take 7 or 8 hours. Time spent in complete darkness and probably ice cold rain. We turned around. At least in Ohakune, we could probably find a place to sleep.

We don't get too far before there is a tow truck on the side of the road. Jon is brave enough to ask for a lift, and the guy laughs and says sure, after he gets the dead car up on the tow truck. He is actually headed back towards National Park, after he brings his cargo to Ohakune, but he would stop short of National Park by about 19 km. We don't want to get stuck walking 19 km home, so we let him drive us to Ohakune, and then we get out.

In the end, we paid a shuttle $60 to drive us home again. It felt like a cop-out after all we had gone through to get home, but was totally worth every penny. Moral of the story: Jon and I probably should get a car so we don't have to risk our lives every time we want to run an errand.

I hope you enjoyed that experience. For the last two days, the mountain has been closed to skiiers because of extreme windy conditions. As a result, everyone is hanging out at home, and the internet is really slow. It has taken us 30 hours to download a movie we want to watch, and it's still not done downloading. We did hear about one kiwi movie that we want to watch called Goodbye Pork Pie. I am told it is about a kiwi and an aussie trying to cross the country in a car with no money. Somewhat appropriate.

Don't worry mom, we won't drink too much! I hope you are enjoying your last days at home before the big trip to germany! Love you!

Jalissa