We stopped briefly in the city of Cromwell, home of the worlds largest plastic fruit (this might not be true, but I can't imagine anyone else having larger plastic fruit) for dinner and to buy some fruit supplies. We ate at the local pub, which was convieniently called The Pub. Despite the town having a population of about twelve, and there being only one large building that encompassed pretty much every business, we had to ask for directions twice. After dinner we got back on the road, continuing our trek south towards Invercargill. We weren't quite sure where we were going to stay, but we didn't want to have to pay for a campsite. For the last two hours of our drive we were driving in almost total darkness. Not only were cars sparce enough that we probably could have counted them on one hand, but there also were no lights. No streetlights, no houses, not evena lit up gas station. We were getting a little scared, and were considering the possibility that we'd take a wrong turn, when a tiny deserted town popped up out of nowhere. We elected to stop for the night, not wanting to keep driving only to find the next town hours ahead. There were no campgrounds around, so we opted to park on the side of the street. We had seen several vans like ours parked on the street in Queenstown so we figured it would be alright, especially since we ususally got up at 7am and cleared out. We decided that parking in front of a church was our best bet, so we shut down the van and turned in. Sleeping in the van isn't too bad, but Maria rolls around quite a bit so I end up sleeping in the crack between the mattress and the wall everytime. I'm a fairly good sleeper though so it didn't matter much. We were up with the sun the next morning, hard to avoid when you're sleeping in a van, and on the road by 7:30. We decided to drive before stopping for breakfast, hoping for a scenic spot where we could snap a few photos and and enjoy ourselves instead of hanging out in front of someones house. Unfortunately, it rained for the next six hours and we ended up stopping in a lonesome cafe parking lot where we made a very wet pot of porridge. It was our first meal in the van and I thought it turned out quite nicely. The terrain had changed considerably over the last few hours; we had moved from rolling green hills to a heavily wooded rain forest. The change was almost instantaneous, a blink of the eye and we went from green to, well, a different green.
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