Homeward bound

Finally something broke. Just as we were driving out of Taihape the suspension on the trailer fell apart. It was immediately obvious something was wrong as smoke started coming from one of the tires and a length of metal once an integral part of the trailer was now roadside debris.

Thank the Gods this happened in small town New Zealand. The lady at the Mobil station immediately thought to call Steve, the engineer and blacksmith, who forfeit his hot lunch to assist a bunch of Aucklanders in need. Steve disappeared under the trailer, just like that man who jumped in the pool in 'A Fish Out Of Water', and when he resurfaced the trailer was able to be towed to his workshop for repairs. An interesting feature of the workshop is the train whistle fixed to the roof which they blow to let the whole of Taihape know it's smoko time. Four hours later we were back under way, arriving in Auckland around midnight tired and looking forward to our own beds.

Alright, so we said the posts had finished - old habits and all that. It's like any addiction, you don't want to go Cold Turkey. Maybe we qualify for a methedrone (sp?) program?

For those interested, there will be a story on the tour aired on Attitude (disability program on TV1 sometime early on Sunday mornings) in the next month or two. We also hope to get a half hour documentary aired on Sky later in the year that maestro Sean Wallace will be working on (the handsome fella from the last post).

Great adventure...nice to be home.

Note the exhausted little blogger in the picture...clearly too demanding a schedule took its toll.


Sweet dreams.