12 hours, 3 people, 1 car, no gas... Day 80

This morning started with a bang. When I threw my alarm clock on the ground for waking me up to early. I snoozed for a bit, then got dressed and ran out the door to meet up with Heather & Jeff for our adventure to Franz Josef Glacier. Our shuttle picked us up at the corner and we rode off to the car hire (read: rental) place. Fast forward to driving down Riccarton to get on the main road to Arthur's Pass. Quick note: There are no interstate type highways in New Zealand. I think that there is one expressway, but it's definitely on the North Island, near Auckland. Anyways, we drove out to Arthur's Pass and enjoyed the few radio stations that we had. Then we got into the Southern Alps. No radio reception what so ever. So we made due by singing any song that came to mind. It was really entertaining actually, we got all the way through Bohemian Rhapsody without missing a beat. Whilst driving through Arthur's Pass, we saw where the battle scene from The Chronicles of Narnia was filmed. Really cool stuff. A good hour or more later, we got to the west coast. Not all that exciting, but we stopped to get gas, so I took over the wheel. What a weird experience. I drove on the proper (read: right, as in correct, left, as in direction) I'm just happy it wasn't a stick shift, I'm not confident in my left handed gear shifting skills. I drove all the way to the glacier, which was cool. When we got there, we walked down to the viewing platform, then we decided to hop the fence. We're allowed, there's a trail. Don't worry, you're just not supposed to if its typhooning (no, that is not a word), because the glacier could split off or something. Anyways, we walked for a good twenty minutes towards the glacier, although I decided not to climb up to physically touch it, as my shoes were not nearly sufficient. I did get to hold a piece of the glacier that had broken off (a baby piece).

Hours more singing and driving, we were back at Arthur's Pass. Then the unthinkable happens. Our petrol (read: gas) light goes on. Can I tell you that we had a collective panic attack? Turns out it was probably because our car was at a weird angle. We've finally made it out of Arthur's Pass alive. As we continue to sing merrily, Heather says something, not sounding happy. "You guys. Gas light is on." Let me tell you, we did not sing after that, the car was silent. We had assumed that we could fill up once we got over the alps. WRONG. We passed empty gas station after empty gas station. New Zealand has something against 24 hour gas stations. The little stick is fluttering around E. Only 50km to go until civilization. We really start to panic after we've gone 20km more, the car is exactly on E. The gas light is on with a vengeance. Back to the collective panic attack. But it was a silent panic attack. Then we see lights. City lights. I've never been so happy to see city lights. We're getting hopeful by now. Then, all of the sudden, I see an illuminated Shell petrol sign. We're in business. As we pulled in to the station, we had a massive sigh of relief. We agreed that we totally wouldn't have made it to the uni (read: university). The rest of the drive was uneventful, we were only about ten minutes away. We arrived back at Ilam around 8:30pm, which is really good time for driving that far.

I've got the lovely task of bringing the car back to the shop tomorrow morning before classes and topping off the tank. Shouldn't be too much at all, since we put in 3/4 of a tank at the Shell Station. I'm exhausted, going to sleep now. Oh and by the way, I think my voice in this video sounds really strange. But that's just me.

Click To Play