Jessie Casson

Traveling from Hokatika to Franz Joseph it appeared luck was not on our side. The front window blew in for the second time. Matt insulted our caravan in a way that is not repeatable and a there was quiet moment while rock bottom was hit. Luckily a wizard type character with missing front teeth kindly pulled over to raise our spirits. He helped up move the glass and directed us to the nearest garage. He then drove behind us to check nothing else fell off. So from having a beautiful home 5 days ago we are now pulling something that looks like we dragged it straight off the local tip.

On the up I photographed the two coal shovelers, Brian and Piet who were great men. We are now in Wanaka enjoying a bit of sunny weather, stunning views and seeking out another glazier.

The 4th of Jan has been a good day. Firstly it was Matt’s birthday putting a good omen on all proceedings. We ate a deluxe breakfast of coissant, salmon pate and rocket lettuce and then made contact with Ross the glass man. I asked Ross the question that our plans hinged on
“How long?”
Ross said those magic words “Ah, I’ll have that fixed by the end of the day.”
Yip yip eeeee.

The woodchopper family, all seven of them, gathered for the shoot and the day finished with fish and chips on Westport’s beautiful beach.

So here we sit sipping beer watching the sun go down and admiring our new windows. A new speed limit of 75kph has been discussed and agreed upon. We will NOT come apart at the seams again.

Until 24 hrs ago all was well. We sailed from Wellington to Picton on an easy crossing and we were making good time heading towards Greymouth to meet our champion coal shovelers. Then without warning something went very wrong. Matt looked in the rear view mirror to see the curtains blowing wildly in the caravan. We pulled over and the whole front window of the caravan had been blown in and smashed. The back left hand window had been blown out with the through wind and the front right hand side of the caravan had come away from the base. We were shell-shocked. We were in the middle of nowhere 66kms from the nearest town (Murchison). 10 mins passed where we were kind of dazed just gazing at the state of our treasured caravan. Then two guys, Graham and Marti, stopped and set about directing us as to what to do next.

They reckoned that the back window was now weakened and would blow out if we left it in so that had to come out. Unfortunately it broke while we tried to move it. We then removed all the curtains and 45mins later we were traveling slowly towards Murchison. Graham and Marti drove behind and we wondered why they had disappeared from view. The reason, they were collecting cushions and various pieces of clothing that were blowing straight out of the back window. We reassessed what could no longer travel in the caravan.

We got a cabin in Murchison and felt overwhelmed at our misfortune. The campground owner very kindly lent us a tarpaulin to put over the caravan in case it rained. Today we taped up the windows, bolted the right side back on and traveled to Westport where there is supposedly someone who can return our caravan to its former glory. Tomorrow we will know more.

On a positive note there are a family of woodchoppers many of whom have won national competitions living in Westport, and if all goes to plan I will be photographing them tomorrow.