CAMPING THE KIWI WAY

Well. There we were. Bogged.

How did we get here and how did the intrepid road trip travellers, Mr and Mrs N. come to be bogged at the Clark Valley Recreation Area, before Murchison on State Highway 6, in the South Island of New Zealand?

Where did all this — road trip — exploring the country — lark come from anyway?

All good questions.

We need to go back in time, a time before we knew that Covid19 was a thing, a time when facemasks were those yellow things that might fall in an “unlikely event” from the overhead panel on an aircraft.

Let us go back to 2019 BC (before caravan), and we, that is Mrs N and I, were planning an extended road trip of the South Island, the following year, in 2020.

Pause for knowing giggles, snorts and — yeah rights!

Having been avid tent campers for several years, we quickly ruled that out for a road trip — the idea of setting up and tearing down a tent every second day or so didn’t seem fun. Plus, South Island in May? Could be a tad chilly. This left two possibilities:

• Take the car to the South Island and stay in motels, camping ground accommodation, Airbnbs, etc, etc.

• Fly to Christchurch and hire a motorhome.

After listing and discussing all the pros and cons, which I shan’t bore you with here, we eventually decided on a hired motorhome trip around the South Island. But, I do seem to remember saying: “Because it’d be funner!”

That settled, we booked for May 2020. It would be autumn and our 25th wedding anniversary. How lovely. Then, like it was for many others, all our grand plans all got covid-cancelled. The motorhome booking was rolled over to the following year, May 2021.

Fast forward to May 2021. After a quick flight from Auckland to Christchurch, we picked up our motorhome. We were away from home for the next four weeks. We set off at break neck speed to do the whole, yes the whole of the South Island in our allotted time.

(Yes, yes, we go a bit slower nowadays, but what were we to know back then? You never know when there might be another lockdown! The South might declare independence from the North!)

After a quick up and over loop, taking in Kaikōura, Picton, Marahau (Abel Tasman National Park) and Nelson we were heading towards Murchison and the West Coast via SH6. Mrs N. was driving — which we share. We saw an inviting looking rest area to stop for lunch. We pulled into the Clark Valley Recreation Area, noting the ‘no camping’ sign at the gate — all good, we were just going to be here for a quick lunch stop. Or so we thought.

The gravelled driveway, appeared to loop around on itself. Excellent — drive in drive out, nice and easy. However, the gravel suddenly gave way to grass halfway around the loop. No worries, there appeared to be a clear track looping back around. Well, there was, but there was also a little hollow dip and then a slight rise back up to the beginning of the loop. Mrs N. cautiously navigated the little dip and started to drive up the little rise. About halfway up, the right front wheel started to spin on the wet grass.

Now here’s the thing. I am pretty sure that if we had stayed where we were and thought things through, we would have been able to get ourselves going again without too much fuss. We will never know because:

Mr N: Just roll back down and give it another go — a little bit faster this time!

Mrs N: Okay darling — I trust your judgement implicitly!

Mrs N. then reversed the motorhome back down the rise, and we ended up with the front wheels, yup you guessed it — in the little hollow dip. A dip which just so happened to have a little stream of water trickling through it. Well. If we weren’t completely stuck before, we sure were stuck now. Both the front wheels were now spinning and going nowhere fast. Attempts to feed sticks under the wheels proved amateurishly futile.

Just as we were contemplating a night stuck in the ‘no camping’ rest area, a couple pulled in — sensibly staying on the gravel. I guess they figured out fairly quickly, we needed some help because they came over to see what the problem was. The problem was that we were still around 57km from Murchison, and stuck in a valley with zero phone coverage. The kind couple said they would drive further along the road and up to the Hope Saddle, where there should be phone coverage to call a tow truck. The Hope Saddle was around 10km further on from where we were. They even said they would drive back again and let us know that they had been able to call for help. All this they did and after about 20 minutes or so, they came back and told us a tow truck was on its way. They even waited for it to arrive, before going on their way.

Well, what can you say? Thank you!

The driver of the flat-bed tow truck had also brought along his large 4x4 on the back. He said he needed to be careful with his truck:

Tow truck driver: This thing will get stuck on a cow pat!

In less than five minutes, he had his 4x4 off the back of his truck, and had pulled us free with a bungee snatch strap.

MR N: What do we owe you?

Tow truck driver: Nothing — the AA roadside assist will cover it!

MR N: Excellent! Thank you very much!

Is there a moral to this story? Yes.

When dips happen, and they will — stop, and think before you act. As long as it is safe to do so, get out and look, assess the situation. Nothing bad will happen — if you’re stuck, taking a moment to get out and look, have a wee think — won’t make you any more stuck. Don’t make the situation worse by guessing or doing the first thing that comes into your head.

As I mentioned earlier, and while I can’t say for sure, I think if we had got out and looked and taken a breath or two, I think we could of got ourselves going again half way up that little hill. If we had looked, we would have seen the dip behind us.

Lastly — never underestimate the kindness of strangers. ◊

Photos ©2024 Craig Nelson