the tide turns

so, just to start off, everyone is okay and no one got hurt. thank goodness. but yeah, things could have been a lot worse..

so our car got totalled. or more specifically stephanie's car that she's had since october. as i said, we are all alright. but seriously? after the entire fiasco of having to put nearly $1000 of work into it for it to pass inspection, and getting a down payment on the car from the buyer, all LESS THAN 24hrs PRIOR?! no joke. timing really couldn't have been worse.

i'll start at the beginning.

after staying with phyllis and her husband, who were really funny and cute and nice and every bit the stereotypical western kiwi folk, mosied my way the 4 blocks to the main strip to watch the runners come into town. it is the most exciting thing that westport sees every year, and the town was (supposedly) packed! in all honesty, though, by our standards it was still a bit of a ghost town, so i really wonder what it must be like the other 364 days of the year.. the morning started off chilly with misty rain. no surprise there. but the sun did come out and it turned out to be a great day for the marathon. cheered theresa & steph as they each ran by, then walked to meet them at the finish. they both did as well as they were expecting, so that was good. they hobbled and i walked with them back to phyllis's, showered and packed, and said our goodbyes to the lovely host. then drove back towards town to get some drinks (the world's best smoothie, i'm convinced, is in westport) before making the drive back northeast to picton, where we would spend the night before catching the ferry to the north island in the morning.

or so was the plan.

about 45 mins after we left westport, the unthinkable happened. we were sitting behind a white car at a yield sign to a one-way bridge. now, let me assure you, these are incredibly common in 

the south island. we must have driven over at least 50 by now. but we were on the yield side, so we waited while 2 cars from the opposite direction crossed the bridge. they were significanly spaced apart, so we waited for a while. after they both passed, it was our side's turn. the white car pulled out and onto the bridge, and we followed closely behind. and here's where things just go bad. the white car finished crossing the bridge, and we were about 75% of the way across ourselves, when a car - no not a car. a CAMPER VAN rental, aka ROAD MAGGOTS for TOURISTS - decided to enter the bridge from the opposite direction without checking to see if the bridge was clear. he completely did not see us until it was too late. steph saw it coming and slammed on her brakes, and we were at a full stop, when the camper hit us. in fact, when i took photos afterward, you can see his tire skid marks on the road and see how close we were to being fully across. and had we been a bit further back, the camper may have had time to see us and stop.

theresa was in full bracing position, arms crossed across her chest and face. steph unfortunately was driving, so had really tensed up pushing both brake and clutch, and stiffened her arms on the wheels. she was definitely sore for a few days afterwards. i was in the back, on the driver's side. and just watched the whole thing take place in slow motion. i really couldn't take my eyes off it, however i do know i closed them when i thought the impact would happen; when it didn't, i opened them right at the second we were hit. i don't think i realized it was scary until after. i mean, really - we were on a one-lane bridge, over a pretty sizable river. not a good situation.

so the guy driving the camper put his car into reverse, and we continued the remaining 3 meters or so off the bridge and pulled off to the side of the road. unfortunately, when the camper also tried to pull off the road behind us, he hit us again on the back side. bloody genius. our car was literally spewing radiator fluid. it looked like a mini waterfall, and soon had made a huge puddle on the ground. and the front looked a bit like an accordian. poor silvia. we were shaken, but thankfully not hurt, and neither was the couple in the camper van. and looking back, no matter how much the rest of the situation sucked, at least there were no injuries.

unfortunately, the iron bridge was in the middle of nowhere. meaning no cell phone reception, and very little traffic. by the grace of something, the only tourist bus of the day came by about 10 mins later. theresa & steph flagged it down and hitched a ride about 20ks to the nearest "town" we had passed, if you can even call it that. well, at least it had one cafe, which meant there had to be a phone around somewhere. and i had the fun job of staying with the car and waiting with the couple until help arrived. i made myself memorize their license plate, b/c what would i do if they just drove off? i was pretty convinced they wouldn't, as the woman kept asking if i was okay, but still. i went into ncis mode, and tried to gather as much info as i could.

the iron bridge had another name. or at least i'm giving it a new name. sandfly alley. at first i could feel the buggers every time they would bite. but it got to be so many that i eventually stopped feeling them. i tried pacing up and down in the little shade i could find, as movement tends to keep them at bay. i also tried to sit in the car, but they were all over that too, so that was actually worse. when you're waiting for 2 hrs for help, there was 

little i could do besides look up to the sky and yell "really?! SANDFLIES?!" so back to pacing i went, keeping one eye on the camper van, and the other searching for suitable ditches i could go to the bathroom. i really really had to pee.

finally theresa showed up, after hitching a ride with someone from the "town" they found (hey, at least she accomplished one of those 'must dos' while in nz). and about 10 mins later steph arrived in a police car. yay, help was here! constable taye was the nicest person, and would be our first real introduction to the generosity of strangers in this country. he took down all the appropriate info from the camper van, and assessed the situation, taking notes and whatnot. actually, he wasn't originally going to come b/c there were no personal injuries, and i guess the law in nz doesn't require a police report for accidents. but steph insisted, and i'm glad she did as later our insurance situation would have gone from bad to worse.

a little while later the fire brigade pulled up. i'm not joking. 5 firemen climbed out of their truck (5 were not needed, but i'm sure it was the only action they were seeing that day so they all came). it was almost as funny as a slow motion bay watch video.. picture this: doors open, hunky men (or at least they thought they were hunky) climbing out. 2 light cigarettes. 2 others begin to strip off their outer jackets revealing the ever-so-flattering jumpsuits underneath. all the while making their way towards us. remember i said i had to go to the bathroom? i nearly peed myself laughing at this site. i guess they were called b/c there was radiator fluid leaking, but since it had taken so long to reach us, it had nearly all dried up - so they really weren't needed after all. but before they left, they helped to push the car to a more suitable location until the tow man could come and get it. they then proceeded to offer us all a lift in their truck. let me assure you - there was barely room for all of them. i don't know where we would have sat, unless it was on their laps. and i think that constable taye saw exactly where this was going, and told them, politely, that no, he would take care of us and we wouldn't be needing their services. hahaha.

so eventually we took all the valuables out of our car and whatever else we could carry, loaded up the stuff in taye's car, and climbed in ourselves. the camper van was to follow us to reefton, the closest 'actual' town, which was nearly 100ks away. i can now say i've ridden in a police car. it was actually fascinating. i watched the radar working, saw all the buttons to make the sirens and lights go off. it brought me back to the days i wanted to be a nypd blue officer.. ha. quite some time later, we arrived in reefton (which we would soon come to know very well). hung out at the police station while taye sorted out things with the camper van people. about an hr later they were done and left. then taye went out of his way helping us find housing. he 

took us to one hostel, and went in personally to ask for accommodation, but it was booked. he then drove us to another, and again went in. free rooms! he completely did not have to do this for us, but again - the kindness of the people here amazed me.

so that's how we came to be in reefton, a small town in the middle of nowhere. and now we had to figure out how we could salvage the rest of our trip sans transportation. oy vey.