Another day another car wreck


Today was filled with wine, good food, variable weather, and another incident in a car.

Today was filled with wine, good food, variable weather, and another incident in a car. I had spent the night at a campground in Cromwell, a town in the middle of Central Otago, about 30 minutes east of Queenstown. The campgrounds in NZ are not limited to campers only, they have cabins which are usually cheaper and more secluded than a typical hotel room. Having gone to the local motel for dinner, I struck up a conversation with a waitress named CJ (remember that name because she comes back into the story tomorrow). I came back to my cabin with the NZ equivalent of a hawaian pizza watched tv and called it a night.
When I woke up rooms heater had turned off, and the room had settled down to somewhere close to freezing. This was a common occourance these days, so I have gotten the habit of turning on heaters and running back to bed for however long it take to warm the room. Today was no different, except today I had a tv, which means I took a little longer. Eventually I was on the road. I headed back to the same motel from the night before for breakfast. I asked about the all day breakfast not realizing that I had just ordered something called the "All Day Breakfast," I wasnt sure if this meant the breakfast was served all day, or would be with me all day, but either way I had a lot of wine tasting today and a long drive so however long it lasted the breakfast would be needed.
I headed towards Bannockburn to visit Felton Road winery. I had met Blair at the Intl Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon that I attended right before the trip to NZ. I have to also mention that before I went to be the night before I received the return call from the people I had met on the LA to Auckland flight. Remember the guy who was behind me when my seat was broken? His name by the way, Tom Kroos, say it out loud.... very funny! Ok not that funny. Well, I struck up a conversation with him and it turned out his wife worked at one the other big wineries just down the road from Felton Road. Also her sister worked at Felton Road. Very small world. I had called Tom and his wife Katie right before I came into town. When Katie called me back she gave me a great run down on the best wines and who had them. So based on that information I had my agenda for the first half of the day. the only thing I had to do was make it to the west coast of the country by sundown... this didn't seem like it would be a problem.
I arrived at Felton Road, and had a great chat with Blair, the winemaker. Blair gave me a personalized tour through the winery, the caves, and cracked open a couple bottles for me to try. He like all the Kiwis couldn't have been nicer. Now it had been my intention on purchasing a case to ship back to the States, however when Blair told me about the $400 fee to do so, the idea went out the window. I decided I would just lug 6 bottles around the rest of my travels. I also decided I would come back to Felton Road to pick those up when I came back through the area. I have to say having been to Oregon, Napa, Santa Barbara, and Russian River Valley, the view from Felton Road has to be one of the best. Keeping in mind it was the dead of winter, and a cloudy day, take a look at this view.

Now picture that with the foliage, considering the snow capped mountains in the background.

I left Felton Road, and headed to Gibbston Valley. Now Katie worked at Gibbston Valley Winery and suggested I go by and check out their Pinot Noir. She lamented that they didn't have the 1998 Pinot Noir because it was one of the best to be produced in New Zealand. Those had all been sold out. However she gave me the name of the owner, an American who moved down here in the early 1980s. It just so happened that he was there when I arrived. I struck up a conversation and told me how they just fired a distributor and received a few cases of their 1998 back from the land of "completely sold out." It was a little steep but I purchased two bottles, where I am going to fit them I have no idea. I also had an amazing lunch at the winery as well as a great glass of Pinot Gris.
After that I didn't have time to go to anymore, and I was feeling guilty about the money spent on wine. I headed towards Queenstown and on to the West Coast and the town of Manapouri. Before I arrived into Queenstown I passed a bridge where they were bungy jumping. Now in NZ they really bungy jump. No cranes, no medium sized bridges or overhangs, here its the real deal right into mammoth gorges. Needless to say I almost ran off the road trying to see someone take their life into their own hands. But no one jumped.
The road diverged prior to Queenstown, so I never got to see the actually town. However I have heard it is just like most ski villages, and is primarily based on tourism more than anything. Lake Wakatipu surrounds Queenstown and heads south along the road I was taking. Although a rain storm was moving in the lake was still breath taking.



As I made my way into the clouds something wonderful began to happen that I had never experianced in August. Snow!!! I was so excited that it was snowing, that I called back to home to tell everyone. This was amazing. Not knowing how much I would get I decided to take a picture just to prove to everyone that it was snowing.



I was very happy. So needless to say as I drove on and the snow kept coming down I was now very happy. In fact, having driven another 20 minutes the snow was starting to stick. I had to pull over to take one more photo.



Well, I drove for about another 30 minites. The snow was definitely sticking, but it was starting to make for a great photo or two so I had to pull over and take a couple more shots.



After taking a few photos I got back on the road which at this time was starting to get a little more difficult to drive in my Toyota Corolla. But not too bad so off I went. After all I was i the middle of New Zealand, I would be happy the have a house within a 30 minutes walk on a good day, its not like I could pull over an ride out the snow. If the snow was anything like the rain it could keep doing this for a few days. And at that point I started to get worried. I no longer pulled over to take pictures, I just stopped the car in the middle of the road now to take pictures, becuase I hadnt seen a car in 10 minutes so I knew it was ok.



I think at this point I was just trying to document my final moments if I went into a snow bank and was never to be found. Maybe this was when they found the body, with two empty wine bottles next to it, they would say, " wow, it really was snowing that day, but he sure looks happy in these earlier photos, wonder why he didn't have snow chains?" Yes, I didn't have snow chains. Not only would I not know how to put them on if I did have them, I am not sure I would know what they looked like, I am from South Carolina... snow chains are about at common there as they were in LA. One could say I was unprepared or ill equipped, but I look at it as God trying to give me the whole New Zealand experience, because as it turned out this was the first snow fall of the year... just my luck!
At this point the snow was really coming down and I decided not to risk going to Manapouri and headed to Te Anau where I knew I would find accommodations. However the road to Te Anau seemed endless. I was really getting nervous at this point, and was cursing the snow that just an hour and a half earlier I was calling home to boast about. At this rate my next call home would be to wake up Mom and Dad to dictate my last will and testament. Sure enough my luck had to run out. For the last 45 minutes to an hour I was perfectly following the tracks of some unseen car that had cut through the snow before me. Every once and a while I would catch the snow in between the two tire marks and fight to keep my car on the road. However this time I couldn't save her.
With a big pick up truck coming up from behind I spent on split second too long glancing at it in the rear view mirror and caught the snow in the middle of the road. I started to feel the car loose control and I did what I am sure any experienced snow driver would tell you was that wrong thing, and turned the wheel back towards the center of the road. NOt hard, just a little! As soon as I did that the car lost total control. Thank god I was going somewhere around 30 to 35 miles an hour because with twist and turn I went slamming into the snowbank on the side of the road length wise.
It was just then I that thought about the clause in my next rental car agreement that stated any car accidents in which no other call was involved would leave the renter with full liability responsibility. Meaning that if there was any damage on the otherside of my car when I got out, I had better find another car to run into or I would be paying the full $2000. I hopped out of the car, and could see no damage on the other side of the car. Had I gone off the road 20 feet further I would have gone into a small creek.
Luckily the truck that was behind me pulled over just up the road. He began to walk back to me and I met him half way. We both assessed the situation and I commented on it as if it had just happened to someone else. He suggested that if we tried to push it would come out. I got back in car and upon his instruction I ever so slowly tried to reverse. Nothing! Then I tried the rocking method, but nothing happened there either. I had a few close calls from other drivers coming by as they almost lost control and slammed into me. But no one did, luckily. After he suggested that i tried going forwards and as I did I just got closer and closer to the creek, we decided to give it a break. Just then another truck stopped and offered to tow me out. He also made me feel better when he said that I wasn't the first car he had to do this for. He attached a rope from the back of his car to the tow hook under my hood.


As he pulled forward and the rope drew taut, I began moving closer to the creek. I has getting ready to panic when he noticed and corrected this by pulling way out to the left. At that point I began to grab traction and come out of the snow. I went on my unnerved way, more so because of the fear of damaging the car more than anything.
I decided to pull over as soon as possible. I stopped at a few motels which were out of my price range, and finally found a decent hostel. As hostel go this probably had the best location of any I had found. From the looks of it, it used to be a motel. I asked for a single room, not really in the mood to bunk it. And I was sent to the second floor of the back building. By this time the snow was building up on the steps up to the second floor, and balancing two bottles of wine, a camera, a pack, and computer bag I am very surprised I made it all the way up. When I got into the room I found a set up that was unique to any hostel I had stayed in. What it looks like they had done was to put walls and doors around two quarters of the room, in effect creating two living quarters out of one, leaving a small kitchenette, and a bathroom. In effect I was sharing the bathroom and the kitchenette with someone else. This someone else had obvoiusly already arrived, however was not around. Shortly after getting settled, much to my suprise two young asian girls showed up. They had been to the store and in no time commandeered the kitchen. Their English wasn't that great, but compared to my Chinese... well who am I to judge!
It turns out that one of the girls was Chinese and the other was Taiwanese, when I pointed out the irony of these two traveling together, the Taiwanese girl said it was best if I didn't bring it up. I had to hide my enjoyment up stirring the pot a little. They turned out to be very nice, the only down side was that they talked long after I TRIED to go bed. Turns out Chinese is not the easiest language to sleep through!

Posted: Tue - August 19, 2003 at 09:32 PM        

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