Leslie and David's Wanderings: 9 February 2024 Greymouth to Fox Glacier, South Island NZ

We contacted Wilderness Motorhomes in the morning to find out what they needed us to do. After much back and forth, they agreed to find someone in Greymouth to inspect the vehicle. We drove to the shop they sent us to. One of the mechanics, Arron, looked over David’s temporary repairs and said there was really not much else he could do. David talked over options with him and got him to bring over some sturdy cardboard which they cut to size and David taped over the plastic to reduce the road noise of the plastic flapping. Then we were on our way to find a grocery store. While in the grocery, Wilderness Motorhomes called and proceeded to tell us how their mechanic had implemented temporary repairs and that they did not have any spare windows that they could supply. Basically, they said there was nothing more they could do until we turned the motorhome in at the end of our rental. David later contacted them and asked if they could at least repair the mirror to make it safer to drive. They said they would see what they could do for us in Queenstown next Tuesday. So we packed away our groceries and headed for the next destination, Fox Glacier. The cardboard over the windows made a huge improvement in reducing the road noise! It was a beautiful day so we stopped at the small town of Hokitika. The town was a former gold mining town which has turned itself into an artist mecca and tourist destination. We took some time to walk around town and look for Christmas Gifts. The New Zealand Greenstone (jade) is a notable commodity. Along our route we stopped at Lake Wahapo in Westland Tai Poutini National Park to stretch our legs. Then it was on to Fox Glacier where we are staying in the Fox Glacier Top 10 Holiday Park for the next two nights. We BBQed a beautiful shoulder cut of lamb on the community grill where David met several other campers from different parts of the world. We were just wrapping up dinner when another camper from San Diego stopped to say hello. While we were talking to them another camper stopped by and asked if we had a screw driver. David whipped out his handy multitool to help them with their issue. They had an older Toyota van camper they were renting which apparently came with a mouse in the head liner! They were trying to gas him out with exhaust from their engine. Later they stopped by, defeated in their attempts to get him out and returned our multitool. We then gave them some duct tape so they could close off the holes in the liner and trap the mouse in the liner if he is even still there. They were from the North Island spending some time seeing the beauty of the South Island. When the young man returned the duct tape he commented, saying “Wow, that’s some sturdy tape man!”. Of course, having taped up our broken windows, David had purchased the strongest type he could find. It was called TRex!! We all had a good laugh about whether or not the he had any finger prints left!! We assured Mazie she could stay with us if things got too raunchy during the night with the mouse. The fun part of being in the camper community!