2 Germans

How do you get two Germans on their stomachs underneath your camper van? I was sitting there blogging out yesterday when two Germans walked by our van and suddenly became quite agitated. They pointed at the van and having moved by then decided to retrace their steps. I was sat in the shade on the opposite side of the road to the van, watching this with some interest. After some more pointing and gesticulating at our van I very bravely stood up and asked them if they would like to,see inside the van, after all why would they be interested in the exterior? They then told me, in very broken English, that they had lost heir spare wheel and that having lost it they had to carry it around in their van with them. It became clear to me that what they wanted was to look at how the spare wheel was fixed on. As soon as I said "Please have a look" they were on their stomachs and under the van. We do have photographic proof of this for all you unbelievers. After three or four minutes of intense German spoken under the van they re-emerged and told me they now understood and were highly delighted. So the moral of this story is that you can please some Germans some of the time.
Yesterday we were up at 5.45 for a trip to Doubtful Sound so named apparently because Captain Cook felt it was a doubtful harbour.
We were picked by a coach and taken to a port where caught a boat for fifty minutes to the other side of Lake Manapouri. It was her that we did engage in mortal combat a swarm of sandflies. I have to inform you that our kill rate is now higher than our bite rate.
We then caught a bus over a mountain for a fifty minute journey which took us to another boat where when we boarded we were treats to  a three hour cruise along a beautiful fiord before reversing the whole journey. The only problem was the weather which was cold and uncheerful. However it didn't dampen our spirits in any way and Doubtful Sound is very beautiful. We were very tired when we returned to mission HQ and I slept for an hour before we cooked tea and had an early night, early because tomorrow we have to be up early again for a mission to Milford Sound. Who says us oldies can't pack it in?
In a curmudgeonly vein what is about some people who believe they have to be first in the queue for everything? This was very much the case today with a rather elderly couple who made sure they were at the head of every queue and were first onto everything, even if this meant using sharp elbows and techniques you wouldn't normally associate with an elderly couple whatever their ethnic origin. Their trip must be spoilt if they are not first in the queue.We are nothing like that , whilst the expedition's master planner likes to be first off the plane or the boat we don't worry at all if we are not first in the queue to get onto something.
Te Anau wher we are at present is a multicultural melting pot with quite a large number of Germans, our next door neighbours are Canadian and Danish and on the site there are Spanish, Japanese, French, Australians and Americans. Do you know or can you work out which nationality wanted to be first onto everything?