Introducing Tommy the Racing Stoat

Safely arrived in wet and miserable Christchurch, a haven for old people and the ideal place to film Antiques Roadshow, we set about getting mobile. After speaking to Matt and doing some vague economic justifications, we have purchased his 1983 Toyota Townace (pronouced townachay, you know) with a mere 250,000km on it and raring to go but for a few loving touches...
He then dashed off to Wellington on a promise in his new used (if you know what I mean) Toyota Surf Ute, and we've since spent a couple of days (and used all possible tourist time in Christchurch) turning Tommy into our home, spending literally pennies on the essentials to let us survive for the next 6 weeks. Key to this process was the discovery of the Warehouse chain of stores, with knockdowns on their knockdowns and a corporate love of melamin and cheap Chinese imports. Thus we are furnished and packed to the gunnels with a full complement of chilly bin, barbie, crockery, mattress, pillows, chairs and even a gazebo for a disturbingly small sum and created a new addition to the fleet of dodgy vans touring this land. The coup de grace, apart from the registration plate GR8TCU which Matt has left with us for now, has to be the home-made curtains that we sat and fashioned for5 hours. Let's just say they used to be towels, they cost not a lot and they are cerise. Yes, cerise.
Day one on the road and, to the sound of our knockdown CD collection, we've blasted all the way down to Dunedin where the Scots must have been ecstatic to settle, as it's bloody freezing and desolate, meaning that not even the insulation of our curtains could keep us warm last night! They can have their Burns statue! On the way down we passed some great scenery as you'd expect and lots of towns claiming to be home to the biggest this and that. One that was true was Geraldine's claim to own the World's largest jumper, which we could have done with last night, so we duly saw it and admired their mosaic of the Bayeux Tapestry, made from knitting machine cog teeth and with liberal additions for missing sections and hidden puzzles. Very impressive, maybe you had to be there. The 3 of us are now quitting the chilly east coast and heading for the Milford Sound, where the weather is meant to be better and we can immerse ourselves in some outdoorsy stuff. Watch the news for reports of a Flying Cerise!