ruth and ed in nz

In the afternoon, in Kaitaia (Gateway town to the Far North), we managed to faff splendously for about four hours – getting lunch, doing some internet stuff – before heading on our merry way back south along the west coast. We decided to stop in a layby (Mangamuku peak) at the top of a hill with a good view to eat our PaknSave picnic. As we stopped, we noticed a very large amount of water escaping from under the van…
Having noticed the irregular pool of water and gurgling hissing noises coming from underneath of the car, we decided to have lunch. Whilst consuming chips and dips we decided to call the AA. A 40-minute call out time was predicted by the lady on the phone and they made it too. The 40 minutes was just enough time for Ed to mess around trying to guess what was wrong. He correctly identified a ruptured cooling pipe (clever him). In the process, a discovery was made that not only the passenger seat flipped up to reveal the engine, but the drivers’ side did too. Something our dodgy Auckland dealer neglected to show us. Clever him – as the second hand car book had said something about a snakes’ nest of cooling pipes that tend to perish on older Nissan Serenas…
So, the nice man from the AA turned up with his Jack Russell. He popped his head under the drivers’ seat and his Jack Russell went off sniffing around the bushes. Ed’s diagnosis was confirmed quickly and the offending pipe was soon removed. We had luckily caught the problem in time before the engine cooked.
It was then up to Ed to negotiate two wheel ramps on to the truck. Done with only a raised eyebrow from our toothless Maori saviour and a loud sigh from Ruth. The Jack Russell had taken the rattle of chains and creaking sounds of the car as his cue to jump back in the tow truck cab. Ed and Ruth got in to the ailing Nissan on top of the truck for the very windy ride back down the hill we had earlier climbed. Driving this surreal and slightly scary roller coaster ride, the mechanic would occassionally give us a toothless grin over his shoulder and say something to the Jack Russell.
When in town the parts man provided the new pipe and clips which came to $18 and the mechanic fitted these at the yard and we were on our way south once more.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 30th, 2006 at 7:40 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.