My Trup

You know me and my penchant for fancy cars... well after a small unpleasant hiccup with a young spotty youth with chain hanging from his visible pants  from my first choice of car-hire firms, I hired a silver Mitsubishi Lancer for a week from a much nicer, rosey cheeked man called Des. 

To begin my trup, I went off down to the Catlins - an area on the south east tip of NZ between Dunedin and Invercargill aka Gumboot. 

Ch ch ch check out my local knowledge yarl! :)

The weather turned for the worst as I set off along the roads and by the next day I was driving in blizzard conditions and sleeping in a under a cabbage tree with nothing but a can of beans and a pair of possum socks.  

 I have been here for three months and I have never seen so much rain in my life and I am from Manchester!  And have lived in Bristol ... two of the wettest areas in the UK.  BUT THIS SNOW STORM lasted for nearly a week and of course happened to land in my big trup exactly where I was travelling.  

This was officially the worst weather NZ has seen for 20 years.  BRILLIANT!

And all the baby lambkins were freezing and it broke my heart to see them all shivery and wet.  I could have collected them in my Mitsubishi Lancer and saved them but you know what sheep are like 

.... daft. 

This is how dedicated I am to the art of post boxes. 

It was very funny actually as the only other people I saw, apart from 1000's of snowy sheep, was a German couple at a waterfall ...  I offered to take a photo  of them. 

It was snowing very heavily but we were reasonably sheltered under the BUSH ..... I stepped back to carefully take the shot, getting them and the waterfall in, composing a lovely snap shot which would capture this beautiful moment.  As I went to press the shutter button, a huge dump of snow landed on my head.  

I suppose you had to be there...

Its not often you see a Punga covered in snow.  Eh!!? 

NICE KIT!

Amazingly suitable gear as you can see. I am such an explorer. 

A $20 rip-off poncho that lost its press studs in the first gust of wind and the hood fell off within a few days so I ended up with a ripped flappy sheet of wet black plastic slapping me in the face. 

In comparison, they are one pair of amazingly waterproof disco boots and they kept my feet warm the whole trup.  I love my boots so much. They are the best shoes I have ever owned.  

I took a wrong turn at one point which was interesting.  

Everywhere looked the same.

I rolled down my window and snapped these cowlets.  

I then as I pressed UP on the electric window and wheels spinning in the snow I shouted ...

"I'll put you on my Blog!"  

.. at the chewing cows as I whizzed off into the blizzards. 

Its become my catch phrase.

I said the same to to a thousand sheep who were all quite surprised to see me get out of my car in the middle of nowhere.

I then laughed to myself trying to pretend I wasn't worried that I was never going to see my friends again as the snow got thicker and faster.  

Doesn't take much these days for me to have involuntarily solitary hysterics.  

Lou Flake.