Final Boarding Call

Well, pretty soon we will hear "this is the final boarding call for flight NZ84 to Vancouver" and we will have to leave here but Jana and I are already decided to come back again. Now we know where to go and what to do.

We got to the airport early as we had to return the motor home by 3 pm and the return depot is just five minutes form the airport. Got through security quickly and now we are waiting for boarding. This time we are smart and are charging all our gadgets. On the way here we were expecting to have power on the plane and used up a lot of battery before we boarded. For some that was quite a tragedy. Now we know better. We brought a power bar from Canada so that we can use one adaptor and then plug all our stuff in to he power bar. Here we even have stuff plugged in to he laptops to make sure all is 100%

Charging everything

Now we are at Gate 7 and waiting for the call.

This morning we got up a bit earlier than usual to get everything ready. We emptied the waste and moved out of the camp to the parking lot close by and packed all the stuff. Then we fueled up the motorhome, filled up the propane bottle and headed to the Wilderness Motorhome depot to return the motorhome. I really made sure I returned the camper as we got it. I am pleased to let you know that I even returned the cow pie. The day before yesterday as I was going to empty the gray water I noticed a familiar odor around the camper. The the cap for the drain was covered with cow dung and even the wheel well on Jana's side was covered in this beautiful stuff. I could not recall running over anything like this. I went out of my way to even avoid New Zealand's little speed bumps - possums, all I can think off is that at one point the night before I drove very close to the ditch as I was moving out of the way so that the cars behind me could pass. I went all the way on to the grass and I guess that is where I picked up some of the stuff. So we returned the camper in the same condition as we got it.

The smelly stuff

Well it is time to board so I will post this and will write the final New Zealand post on the plane. In the mean time here is a few pictures from some of our adventures.

Visit to Hobbitton

 

Michael and Phillip in Zorbs

 

Michael's OGO face plant

 

 

Poor Hobbit

 

 

Here is the video we will watch in a few minutes - enjoy. Best safety video, you can actually enjoy watching it. http://youtu.be/XCbPFHu3OOc

See you in Canada.

Last Night in New Zealand

Well, all things must come to an end, and so it goes for our trip. Tonight is our last night in New Zealand.

We spent the day exploring downtown Auckland today and celebrated our trip by having lunch at the revolving restaurant at the top of Auckland Sky Tower. While we ate our tasty lunch we enjoyed the view of Auckland. So, in and hour or so, we saw all of Auckland. It was great and enjoyed by all.

We only saw a little here in Auckland so I can't really say much about it other then it is a big city. We left the camper van in the camp and bought a family bus pass for a day for $26 and used the busses to got to town and back. I must say that they have a great mobile online page that has a "Journey Planner" that allows you to easily select where you are, where you want to go and it will tell you exactly where to get on and what bus to use to get to your desired destination. It was very easy to use with timetables and everything. When we got back to the camp Jana and I went for a last walk, by the shore, while enjoying a beautiful colorful sunset.

One of you followers asked if we are ready to go home and there are several answers. Phillip said yes, Jana and Michael said no and I am both sad to leave but at the same time looking forward to going home and also looking forward to getting back to work.

Tomorrow we have to pack up, clean the camper, empty everything, fuel up and refill the propane tanks. The place where we will return our camper is close to the airport so it should be easy. Once we will get to our gate at the airport I should have some time to write up some more about our trip and also paste some more pictures here. If not then, I will have a lot of time on the airplane. So this is all for tonight.

Do you know where this picture was taken?

Good night.

 

Morning Post

I wasn't sure what to name today's post and since this is the first blog post I am writing in the morning I titled it "Morning Post."

It is 10 am and it is 22 degrees Celsius in the shade. I am sitting in the shade of the camper and shortly I will have to move because the shadows is getting smaller. The sky is blue with just light cloud here and there and I have a view of the Pacific Ocean with little islands popping out of it. I can hear a nice blend of birds, some kind of a cricket and waves crashing. I have a nice coffee right beside me and Michael is next to me doing his manicure while sharing his wisdom with me. Jana and Phillip just joined. Phillip is wearing his swim shorts sunglasses and tuque while eating his colorful Fruit Loops - what a combo.

We are camped at Hahei Holiday Resort. See if this link works. It is close to where we are. http://maps.apple.com/?lsp=9902&sll=-36.840711,175.809786&q=33%E2%80%9339%20Harsant%20Avenue,%203591,%20New%20Zealand

This is our second night in the area but the night before we stayed in a different campground just 10 minutes down the road - Hot Water Holiday Park. We will stay here another night as it is a beautiful place with great beaches and a hot water beach as well. The first time we went to the hot water beach we thought that a cruise ship sank and all the people ended up on the beach. There was so many people there it was unreal. People standing around a bunch of dug out holes on the beach with people sitting in them. There is a hot spring coming out on the beach - just hot sulfur smelling water bubbling out of the sand and if you find the right spot you can dig a hole with the right temperature and have your own personal spa right on the beach. If you go too close to the source it can get very hot. At the source it is so hot you can get burned. It is quite fun to watch. Because of the Easter holiday there was a lot of people there, last night it was better and we will go there again tonight to see how it is. The only time you can enjoy your own hot pool is two hours before low tide until two hours past the lowest tide, otherwise it is under water. I will take some pictures tonight and post them later.

Hot Water Beach

The other nice thing right by the hot water beach was the nice surf there. Michael, Phillip and I spent a couple of hours there just fooling around in the waves. The camp we are at now is right on the beach. Last night we had late supper, spent too long on the beach. After supper we took our chairs to the beach and watched the stars. Jana and I started out just sitting by the camper watching the stars but to our surprise the boys came out and joined us so we headed down to the beach. We sat there for about an hour. Phillip was explaining physics to Jana. It started out with how long the light travels from some of the stars and the fact that some stars could be gone and we still see the light. Jana asked something about that and Phillip took over and gave Jana a physics lesson. Then it went on to explaining of lunar and solar eclipse and so on. In the mean time, Michael was explaining to me how he doesn't know what he wants to be and also shared with some of his inventions and what he likes and doesn't like to do. So I had a stereo chatter from both sides struggling to follow both conversations in case I need to respond to one or the other. It was a good time.

Not all the time it is a good time though - having two teenagers around is a challenge sometimes. But I again reminded myself of some basics. Do not talk to, respond to or ask teenagers anything before they are fully awake, fed and showered. No matter how hard you try to avoid arguments they will always occur because they like to argue and can't live without them - the trick is to not take them personally I guess and stay in control if your own emotions at all times. Teenagers can go from viscous animal like being to a sweet and kind person in a second. I am slowly starting to discover some of the triggers that can change them from one state to the other but 90 % of the time it is still hit and miss. It is also interesting how each one is so different. I hope that it will not be long before these years will pass and that I will survive these years without going crazy. For those who had teenagers - you know what I mean, for those who will have teenagers - get ready and enjoy your children now.

Well back to our New Zealand Experience. We are planning to head out to Cathedral Cove in a little while so I will have to finish this up now and continue later. I do have some pictures and experiences to share from some of the places we visited last couple of days but I will write about them later. Off to the Beach, will have to remember to apply some some sun screen today.

 

Rotorua - Stinky Town

While I am driving all these thoughts come across my mind that I would like to write here on the blog but when I sit down to write it is all gone - my mind is blank. When we get to camp, by the time we eat and do other things, explore around, it is time to go to bed.
Today we didn't drive very far. We had an easy morning, drove only 133 kilometers from Turangi to Rotorua. We made a couple of stops along the way. Again, quite a bit of traffic on the road because of the long weekend and a lot of police cars. Got stopped again today in a road block and had to do a breath test, passed without any problems. One of the many bikers ahead of us got pulled off.
Driving around in the motor home after two weeks is routine now and driving on the left side is no trouble at all. However there is always something we forget when we get going. Either a cupboard door or a drawer is not shut properly, propane bottle is not shut off or a widow is open somewhere. Today the fridge wasn't closed properly and a few things flew out, luckily nothing spilled or broke. Yesterday we had a few issues and as luck would have it it was in the city and I could not pull over. One of they cuppoard door latches above the sink fell apart and Michael had to stand there hold on so he doesn't fall and hold the door closed so that nothing falls out. I had to find a place to stop and temporary fix the latch.
This motor home is fairly new, it has only 22 000 kilometers on it but there were quite a few rattles when we starlet out. We got a lot of the rattles fixed now. First thing was the glasses and cups. Jana now has paper towels between them and that helped a lot. Then there was a very annoying loud clanging sound coming from one side of the drop-down bed. It was screeching and clanging so loud that we could not stand it. While we were driving Phillip was observing where the noise is coming from. It took us a couple of days to find the source of the noise. There are pins that hold the bed up and one of them was hitting the metal plate behind the catch. We made a couple of adjustments to the cables that hold the latch and got rid of that irritating noise. The only noise that is left now is a screeching noise when we go over a big bump or a speed bump, it sounds like the rear springs. We met a few other campers build on the same chassis as our camper and they all make the same noise so that is probably how they are. Overall we are very happy with the motor home.
One of the challenges we still have is that Phillip and Michael are sleeping on the drop down bed that is right over the table and most mornings it is a challenge to get one of them motivated to get out quickly enough so that we can raise the bed and get going with breakfast. We offered to trade places with them but they didn't want our bed because it is smaller and that would not work for them apparently.
One of the neat things we discovered in this motor home is how to make the bathroom into a drying room at night. We shut off the heating vents everywhere and leave the bathroom vent open as well as the roof vent and it dries our towels at night. The camper has a really nice bathroom and a shower but we used the shower only once so far when we freedom camped. All but one night we stayed in holiday parks where they have nice showers and bathroos so we use their facilities. We use the bathroom at night or when we are on the road. Phillip hasn't used the bathroom even once and today he proclaimed that he made it his challenge not to use the toilet in the camper at all.
I was hoping to do more freedom camping here but it is getting more difficult. They are trying to make people use the holiday parks more because it is good for business and mostly to keep the place clean. I am sure it is because of iresponsible people that the good things disappear. Camper van business here in New Zealand is big, they are everywhere.

As I mentioned already, today we arrived in Rotorua. Rotorua is the most unique area on the North Island. Unless you plan to visit Yellowstone, Iceland, or Kamchatka Russia, then Rotorua is the most active geothermal area you’ll EVER See! That’s right, few places on this planet have boiling pools as golf-course hazards. First sign of this amazing geothermal activity we witnessed was about 20 kilometers south of Rotorua. I saw some smoke coming out on the side of the road, I thought it was a grass fire that was put out. Then I saw place on the other side of the road with smoke coming out of the ground. It wasn't until the smell of sulfur entered the van that it hit me it was not smoke but steam coming out of the ground. It is quite weird to see steam coming out of the ground from someone's back yard or a field.

We turned off the highway to WAIOTAPU THERMAL WONDERLAND. It wasn't cheep to get in he he park but then how often do you see stuff like that. There were many steeming holes and caves with diferent collors around the vents, pools and cascades. I liked the boiling deep pool with some king of orange crust just below the suface around the edge. The funny thing was that the best part of this geothermal wonderland was outside of the park borders and was accessible for free. This fun part were the mud pools. It was very entertaining to watch. I will not make a comparison here as to what the sounds and sights of the mud pools reminded me of - but some of you might get the idea. This pool is filled with mud of different consistency, some fairly thick mud and some parts were quite thin paste like mud. There is steem coming out and bubbles and mud spits and sprays up in the air - lot of fun to watch.

Tonight we are staying in a holiday park by the lake Rotorua. There are a couple of hot pools right in the camp - they get the hot water from a bore 30 meters below the campground and it comes to the surface into two large stainless steel tanks where the mineral water cools and in the process heats the hot water for showering. Then once the water cool from about 100 degrees to 42 the it runs in to the pools. They even have a steem oven where you place your food and it cooks - recipes are included. Some areas of the campground are so hot that you can't walk barefoot. The camp is right by the lake Rotorua and we went down to the beach to dig a hole for a personal hot tub. We didn't succeed tho because the water was so hot that we could not even keep our feet in it. Walking along the path to the lake it sound like there are kettes with boiling water all around. Really cool to see - not to smell however. Even in the motorhome we can smell end sulfur.

Well this is all for tonight.

Wellington

So the last two nights we spend in Wellington, right downtown by the ferry terminal, the New Zealand Post building and close to the train station. Just up the street was the parliament building, the treasury and the reserve bank. Along the shore were many restaurants, coffee shops, galleries and other interesting places. Here is a couple of pics from our camp in Wellington.

Yesterday we walked so much I got a blister on my right foot. We started out going to see the old St. Paul Anglican Church. I am not going to tell you about the history and such, google it and you will find the details, but all I will tell you is that It is constructed from New Zealand native timbers, with stunning stained glass windows. I enjoyed the wooden structure. I was sorry I didn't bring by tripod and wide angle lens, it would have been a good picture. I just snapped a couple of pictures and here is one to show you.

After that we walked to the other side of downtown to Te Papa. Te Papa is New Zealand’s national museum, renowned for being bicultural, scholarly, innovative, and fun. We spent about an hour and half there and then went to get something to eat. There was a gaming exhibition at Te Papa and Michael wanted to go back and see it so he went back while Phillip, Jana and I went for coffee and ice cream thinking that by the time we are done Michael will be done exploring the exhibition. Michael spent the next three hours there, we ended up going to get some groceries and then went back to camp to wait for him. Once Michael came back we headed up the cable car and walked back through botanical gardens. So a lot of walking and lot of exploring. The cable car was very similar to the one in Prague going to Petřín.

When we got back to camp it was getting dark. We got some chicken skewers earlier while we were waiting for Michael so I pulled out the BBQ to make supper. One of the things I got to suggest to the camper rental people is to include BBQ brush with the BBQ. I ended up scraping it with an old wooden spoon - it all turned very good, also roasted some veggies.

One of the challenges while camping in the city was the noise. The engine rumble from the ferry that was docked in port right next to the camp was very annoying. The ferry left at 8:50 pm but was back at around 5 am and it was hard to sleep with the noise. There was some action at night as well - about five police cars chasing a speeding car through downtown - I am guessing he had to be doing well over 100 km/h through the streets of downtown. Overall I really enjoyed Wellington, very nice city.

Today we left the camp just after 10 am. We drove up to Mount Victoria to have a 360 degree view of Wellington, snapped a few pictures there and then had a late breakfast and coffee with a view. Apparently they also filmed some Lord of the Rings scenes there. Then we headed North out of Wellington while looking for a dump station which turned out to be an experience - took us almost an hour to find one. To make a long story short, by the time we got going it was almost two o'clock.

We drove about 355 km today and are camped just south of Lake Taupo. I was hoping we would make to Waikite Valley thermal pools where we could have a soak, but it would be another hour drive and the pools close at 9 pm. Oh well, we will soak later.

I sure miss the South Island. As I mentioned before the traffic down on South Island was virtually nonexistent. Here we were driving in traffic all day today. To make things worse it is Easter weekend this weekend and people are already traveling today. There was police cars everywhere today. Just as we're were getting close to our destination tonight we passed a police cruiser parked on the side of the road in the opposite direction. As we passed him I kept my eye on him in the rear view mirror - not sure why one does that. Just as I lost sight of him in the mirror and forgot about him, flashing lights appeared. Mr. NZ police comes flying by and a whole bunch of cars in front of us and then just turns his lights off and keeps driving in front of the line up. I kept thinking what that was all about when he pulls off on a wide shoulder and waits until we get close and pulls us off. I knew I didn't do anything wrong but still the hart rate went up a bit and I kept wondering if there was some NZ rule that I might have missed. He walks up to the window and asked me if I am traveling together with the caravan behind me. I told him that I am not. He then told me that I should take every opportunity to pull to the side of the road and let she traffic behind me pass. Then he told me that it is probably more a fault of the caravan behind me that there was such a line behind us. And he was right, of course. After I shared this episode with the lady at the camp office - she told me that the police is out because of the long weekend. Apparently last year they had no fatalities from accidents during the Easter weekend and they want to keep it that way this ear. In New Zealand you can drive speed limit plus ten. During long weekends it is speed limit plus four - if you are over you get a ticket. Good job NZ police.

Well it is quarter to one and I should go to sleep. But before I go here is couple of things we learned so far. The Kiwis use "cheers" instead of thanks. And do you know what whey call shopping carts? Trundler or trolley - Phillip and Michael sure finds this funny, especially trundler.

Well I am off to our small bed. Tomorrow if I get to it I will share some more stuff.

Here is a couple of pictures of Wellington.

First Night on the North Island

Well, tonight is the first night on the North Island. Also tonight we are staying right downtown in the capital city of New Zealand - Wellington. The camp is basically a parking lot in the downtown by the waterfront with buildings with toilets and showers. Out of our window we can see the ferry docking on one side and the tall buildings of downtown on the other side.

It is quite a switch from the peaceful South Island where we spent past 11 days. The population density of South Island is 7 people per square kilometer and the density of the North Island is 30 people per square kilometer just to give you an idea. Or in another words the South Island is about 33% larger but only 23% of the population live there. So I guess that explains why they can get away with one lane bridges on their main highways. So now in to the busier part of New Zealand.

One of many one lane bridges on the South Island

Somewhere north of Queenstown

Sheep crossing

Lake Alexandra - stayed here one night

It sure was a pleasure spending time on New Zealand South Island. We drove 2286 km and in total 36 hours driving it. Our average fuel consumption of the motorhome was 11.2 liters per 100 kilometers which is very impressive for this size of motorhome. We enjoyed the slow pace of life there and the peaceful camps we stayed at.

The last couple of nights we stayed at Marahau, just south of the Abel Tasman National Park. It was the first time we stayed in one camp for two night in a row - that was a nice break, not driving for a whole day. It was a a beautiful place. We went for a hike on the Abel Tasman National Park trail. We took a water taxi to the Anchorage - a nice bay along the trail and then hiked back to camp. We walked for 12.8 km. We visited several beautiful beaches and took a swim in the Tasman Sea. The temperature was 23 degrees and the water was about the temperature of our lakes in the summer. The beaches were golden sand that are created by the salt water braking up the granite shore. Apparently the granite contains iron and the salt water corrodes it which cause the granite to fall apart creating these awesome beaches. In the evening we finally got use the BBQ we got with the camper van and made some New Zealand steaks - the turned out well.

Proof that I was swimming in the Tasman Sea

The beaches were wonderful

Cormorant and some other bird

One of the interesting experiences was taking the water taxi. I purchased the tickets for the taxi and was told to go over to the next door building to wait for the pick up. In a few minutes a big Ford tractor turned the corner pulling a trailer with a boat on it and passengers sitting in the boat. He pulled in the parking spot and dropped a ramp up to the boat and we were instructed to get on board. There were already eight passengers on board. Then the skipper got on the tractor and drove down the road and down the boat ramp and it to he middle of the bay. On the way we met another tractor with a boat on a trailer that pulled up right next to us and a few passengers hopped on to our boat. Then the skipper came on board of the boat and another guy drove our tractor even further until the boat started to float, then we took off. The beach there is so long that they need to use this way to get the boats in the water - it works well.

So far the north of the South Island is my favorite part of New Zealand the scenery, the beaches and the climate but we had to push on and make our way to the North Island. The ferry crossing was good, we were on the largest ferry that crosses the Cook Straight. It can take up to 600 cars and 1600 passengers. There are two ferry companies that run between the two islands, Bluebridge and Interislander. We went on the latter and the ship was called Kaitaki. The ship could use a bit of updating but overall was nice. The first hour and a bit we spent sailing through the Queen Charlotte sound, then almost two hours across she Cook Strait and the last part was sailing into the Wellington Harbour. In total the crossing took three hours and twenty minutes. I was interesting to see that they use big chains to tie down the semis and the trucks, apparently the crossings can get very rough. We had great weather and very smooth sailing.

Tonight we went for a walk in the downtown of Wellington and got some groceries, made a really nice stir fry and then went for another walk to take some pictures of Wellington at night, we will see how it turns out. We have had some discussions here about whether Wellington is a big city or not, Phillip is claiming that it is not a big city while we feel that at 395 600 people it is a big city. Well, we can all have our opinion I guess, it's just that some people are more opinionated than others.

We will be staying here for two nights. Tomorrow we will explore the highlights of the city and I will try to update the information here.

I will also add more pictures here once I go through them s check back later. Good night.

 

After a Long Pause.

It's been five days since my last post.  I knew it would be difficult to keep up the blog but I was determined that I would keep it up.  Well it is tough to get motivated at the end of the day to spend time to write this up.  It was a busy week, we did a lot of driving - 2086 km in total which took about 34 hours.  I am quite proficient at emptying the grey water, the "cassette" and filling up with fresh water.  The other things I have been doing is a bit of cooking - usually breakfast and also washing some dishes.   Motivating some of the crew to get up in the morning, driving gingerly so that the laptops aren't flying off the table and nobody gets sick takes some patience and energy. And so between covering all this distance and all this other stuff - not much time and energy left for keeping up the blog.

Here is the course we covered so far:


View Larger Map

I am not sure where to begin with my experiences and impressions so I will just write it as it comes to mind.  Hopefully I will not repeat what Jana already wrote on her blog. It is a late now and tomorrow we have a bit of hike planned in the Abel Tasman National park so I will not be to long.  I haven't had a chance to even download all the pictures (not that there is a lot) and so I might just post a picture or two.

After a week in New Zealand these are my observations etc.  The scenery is a lot like British Columbia.  We drove through areas that looked like Okanagan, in fact the Central Otago region is almost all like some parts of Okanagan in the summer. Queenstown is like a combination of Banff planted in Peachland.  We also drove through parts that looked like Beskydy in Czech Republic - rolling hills with mixed forests with sheep.  Around Lake Tekapo with the mountains in the background it looks like Rocky Mountains.  So far the most foreign or different scenery has been along the east coast and up north here.

The cities are nice, clean - in fact I have yet to see a place that has junk around.  Everything is neat and clean and even if the buildings are old, they are well kept.  Even the little towns we drove thorough are very nice and clean and maintained.  Most cities even the smaller ones we went through or explored have some kind of garden - a botanical garden with all kinds of various trees, shrubs and many flowers and a fountain.  So far the largest and nicest we seen was in Christchurch.  We have also seen many churches similar to the ones in Europe made from stone with bell towers that ring the bells on the hour - feels like back in Czech Republic.

Even tho this country looks a lot like BC it has a very European feel to it.  Cars are like in Europe, smaller, no big North American cars or pickups.  A large percentage of vehicles are diesel like in Europe. The big semi trucks are like in Europe with trailers that are wrapped it tarp like material.  The traffic signs are like in Europe as well.  And as I already mentioned the stores have a European feel and smell to it as well.

There are some things here that are a bit less then in North America and even in Europe.  I think that the selection in goods are a bit more limited.  For example in the grocery stores the deli counters have less of a selection and over all there is not as many choices as you would get lets say in Save On Foods in Canada.  However everything you need is there - and ind some way maybe it is better - less to fuss over.  The internet is very limited everywhere.  We were in Starbuck once in Dunedin and you only get free 30 minutes and even that is very slow and limited.  All the wifi connections we had so far were very very slow.  The best connection we have so far is on our iPhones but we only have 2 GB so we are careful with the use as we use it to look up campground info and other travel info.  Coverage is so far good - only few places where we were not able to get signal.

A bit about coffee.  They don't drink drip coffee here.  Today we had a lesson on coffee here in New Zealand.  These are some of the coffees.  Short black, long black, flat white, latte and cappuccino.  Short black is basically an expresso, long black is an expresso with more water in it, flat white (most popular here and my favourite) is expresso with steamed milk and late is same just more milk in it.  So when we go out for coffee we have flat white. We don't go too often because small flat white is usually between $3.80 to $4.20 and is is small.  We did find a great coffee for the french press that was in the camper van (motor home) so we make our own and use a good cream with it.

The last two days we are on the north of the south Island - so far our favourite place.  Rolling hills with mountains in the background, even though it is the warmest and the most sunny part of the island it is more green then the rest we seen so far further south.  Orchards, vineyards, sheep and turquoise ocean with beautiful beaches - incredible combination.  In Blenheim it was very interesting - one side of the valley is like the hills in the Okanagan and then mountains behind it and the other side of the valley are treed green hills - very interesting.  Apparently the climate here is really awesome even in the winter it gets warm sunny days so that you can walk around in t-shirt and around four pm you have to put on a jacket.

As we walked around today I made a point to strike up conversations with the local people and shop owners and most that I talked to were from Europe - Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland.  Most are here because they wanted more space and because they liked the climate end the easy going lifestyle.  Here up north it is a bit more busy than it was south.  But overall very relaxed pace - no traffic, in fact most days we drove and we would see cars maybe every 5-10 minutes.

The roads here are a bit rougher - mostly seal coated so it is noisy and bit bumpy and narrow.  There are no paved shoulders so basically the line of the edge of the road is on the edge - you really have to pay attention when driving because you go across the line and you are in trouble.  This is also difficult when trying to enjoy the scenery as you drive and especially when you want to pull over and take a picture - no room.  Luckily because there is so little traffic we just slowed down or went off the road a few times.  Even the main state highways have one lane bridges - and very narrow ones.  The ones that are two lane - are so narrow that our left wheels are rubbing the curb when passing oncoming camper van or a truck on a bridge and it never fails there is one when you are crossing one of these bridges.  And the bridges here are long.  There are many many camper vans here - all kinds of them - this is really popular here and a big business.

Well I think this will be all for tonight it is getting late.  I will try to get a few more pics on tomorrow as we have wifi for the next 24 hours.