You would think that with all that has happened to us nothing more could go wrong. Well, it did!
Having decided to watch a film about 9pm, what we normally do is make the bed up and sit stretched out to watch it. Saves getting bedding our etc at a silly time of the evening. Anyway, Ian went to pull the bed out and there arose a problem. The bloody thing got stuck halfway and no amount of pulling, lifting, pushing or swearing got it to move out. This meant we were stuffed as far as sleeping together was concerned. I said (very gallantly) that I would sleep on the passenger seat with my legs onto the driver seat. Ian, ever the gentleman, quite rightly told me NO. Then I had a brainwave, unscrew the seat from the frame and lift it out. (Thank goodness Ian had gone to Bunnings at the beginning of the holiday to purchase screwdriver and Allan keys.) It did mean no one could perch on the edge of the seat otherwise the floor would come up to meet them rather rapidly. All in all, it took well over 90 minutes to get it sorted and as for the film? we were too exhausted to even contemplating watching it!
This morning and the big RP clean up. While I was doing that Ian set about trying to repair the bed. By trial and error, he discovered that the screws on the frame were loose and one must have come out jamming the runner. With a lot of fiddling, he managed to shift the screw enough and tighten the others. Success as the bed could once again be pulled out, here's hoping for a better nights sleep.
By midday, we had had enough and headed for Christchurch. RP started up fine, in fact, she was running normally for ten minutes and then the juddering started again. Must get worse the warmer the engine gets.
Parking in Christchurch was a doddle. Plenty of spaces and at $5.50 for all-day parking we thought that brilliant. First stop was lunch followed by souvenir shopping and then a tram ride to the Quake City, a building dedicated to the 2010/11 earthquake, a real eyeopener.
 |
| This was a great idea by the restaurant. Hats and suncream. |
 |
| The Cathedral is still in ruins but work is to start soon. Click HERE |
 |
| Plenty of entertainment going on in Christchurch |
 |
| Photos at Quake City |
So now we have packed and not sure why the bags are straining at the zips, they weren't when we left the UK. Tomorrow we leave for Oz but not before we return RP to the hire company and haggle for some sort of compensation!
5 comments:
Good luck with the hire company - I think they should be paying Ian for all the repairs he has done. Most people would have been stuck on numerous occasions. Safe travels to Oz. When do you head back to the UK? Jennie
Hi Jennie,
We got the compensation we were after, took a bit of haggling but got there in the end. We don't return to the UK until Mid April. Xx
Planning a similar trip, please can to tell me which motor home company you used, (so that we can avoid it !!) Been quoted for "Maui Cascade" at the moment.
Hi Alf, The company was a small not so well known rental firm, and three years ago we took one of the campervans with no trouble at all. The RP had only recently been added to their fleet of about 10 so they too were unaware of some of the problems. The diesel in the water tank was done by another hirer so we cant blame them for that. The rest was bad luck on our part and we were very pleased with what we got in way of Compensation as a 'good will' gesture. The Maui, Britz and Jucy are three of the biggest rental companies over here so you can probably rest assured that you won't have any trouble with any of them. Enjoy NZ. It's an amazing country.
Thank you for the comprehensive reply.
Post a Comment