New Zealand’s Motto: You’re An Adult, Act Like One (aka Greymouth to Blenheim)

Our goal for Tuesday seemed pretty simple: drive from Greymouth to Blenheim, via Nelson.

The total driving time was about 5.5 hours.  With a few sightseeing stops planned along the way, we thought this was a reasonable plan.  Our car, however, had other ideas.

We’d rented the car, an older (~ 10 years old?) model Nissan Sunny, back in Chistchurch.  Then, we nicknamed her “Betsy”.  It sounded responsible, hard-working, and practical. 

"Betsy" seems appropriate, right?

Now, in the US, a cheap, "economy" rental is tiny, but still new.  In New Zealand, an “economy” rental is decently sized, but old.  [In fact, we later learned that our rental company has a sister company that rents the cars when they are new, then turns them over to the budget rental company we used.]  But our relationship with Betsy started out quite well, and for the first 1,000 miles or so, we made a happy threesome.


However, the night before, as we reached Greymouth, we noticed that she’d developed a very low idle.  It didn’t seem fatal, but we were slightly wary of bringing her out on an all-day journey, particularly considering New Zealand’s steep and winding roads, the long distances between towns, and our lack of cell phone.  So, we popped into our rental car company’s Greymouth office. 

We were told that the only car they had available in Greymouth was a manual, but if we could get to Nelson (~4 hour drive), we could change to another automatic there.  As we had several long days of driving left in New Zealand, we really wanted the option of switching drivers (I can’t drive a manual).  We asked if we could take the manual to Nelson, then switch to another automatic there. Kiwis don’t really say “no”, but we were given the impression that this was not a preferred plan.

We debated a bit, drove around on a few errands in Greymouth, and ultimately decided to chance the drive to Nelson.  Things started well, and we stopped to see the Punakaiki (Pancake) Rocks:

Pancake rock, Grass, Kee-Min (L to R)

These sit just off the western shore of the South Island, and the unusual shapes have been formed by erosion (pools of slightly acidic water cause gradual erosion of the limestone).  

Now, let's zoom in on that last one:

Look! Layers!!!  [Like an onion...]

Scientists aren't really sure how the different layers were formed, although the current hypothesis is that hard and soft layers of sediment were layered in an alternating fashion, then compressed to form limestone.  Regardless, the resultant layering is pretty much awesome:

Apparently, some of the low-lying structures contain "blowholes" that spout water during high tide.  We missed this event, but were still glad that we had stopped.  That was a whole lot of cool (and geology) in thirty minutes!


We hopped back into the car and continued on toward Nelson (~3 hours).  As we drove, Betsy became increasingly cranky.  Her idle was quite low when we were stopped, her shifting was choppy, and the max speed she could maintain on an ascent was about 35 – 40 mph.  Needless to say, the drive to Nelson was rather tense.  I’ll spare you the details (most of which involved me saying, through gritted teeth, “I just want to get to Nelson.”), but we made it, and we never had to push her.  *phew*


Admittedly, between gritted-teeth replies, we did get to enjoy some changing scenery as we moved north.

Greener, and tree-ier.

Clouds on moutain tops.

We arrived at the rental company in Nelson, and were informed that we actually needed to go to their airport office, not their downtown office (where we’d been instructed to go), because the downtown office didn’t have a car available.  Also, could we please top up the tank on our way? 

Enter Holly, seconds away from having a canary.  [Excuse me?? Could we fill the tank of your broken car??  That we drove all the way here already??]  The only thing restraining the canary?  The fact that the whole situation seemed totally normal to the Kiwis, and I didn’t want to sound like a spoiled American.  Plus, the canary probably would’ve been confiscated by customs as when we tried to enter Singapore anyway.  But Give. Me. A. BREAK!!!  The car is broken. We nursed it here.  Now you want us to drive it somewhere else, because you made a mistake in telling us where to go?  And we are supposed to leave you with a full tank, in a broken car?

But, we’d come this far. We didn’t have much choice.  In our time here, we have learned that Kiwis do believe, “You’re an adult. Act like one.”  This is apparent in the lack of safety gates, the expectation that you clean up your trash, and now, it seemed, the philosophy that a malfunctioning rental car is our problem until we can get it where the car company needs it.  I’m glad it didn’t break down on the drive – I fear that we would have been told to call a tow company and get it (and us) to the nearest rental center…2.5 hours away.

And through the whole experience, not one representative of the company apologized, or thanked us for our trouble.  Not one.

On the plus side, though - You're an adult, so feel free to climb up
a waterfall, if you're so inclined.

I know this may sound a bit scathing.  But the truth is, I’d rather sound like a spoiled American on my blog than standing in the rental car company’s office.  And I do believe that these differences simply reflect different standards/ideas about customer service.  We’ve seen them reflected repeatedly in our interactions down here.  No one is rude, at all – but they definitely don’t believe that “The customer is always right”. 

For example, during our travels on the South Island, it wasn’t uncommon for us to arrive at a motel/hostel and have to ring for/call for/find the manager working the bar next door so that we could get checked in.  Arrivals after 9 or 10 PM are discouraged, and apparently sometimes incur an additional fee.  If you, as a guest, have a problem during the night, you can contact the front desk – after 7 AM.  Otherwise, you are basically expected to look after yourself.  I recognize that there is good reasoning behind this, and for us, it did not present a problem.  But, if you’re traveling to New Zealand – fair warning: Don’t expect 24 hour customer service.

Finally, though, we got the car situation squared away.  We set off in a slightly newer model of the same car.  Deciding not to get too close to this one, we chose to keep things professional, and nicknamed him Mr. Blue.

Mr. Blue, please be good to us!!

We stopped for a decent pub-style dinner at The Honest Lawyer (Kee-Min’s request). 

*insert lawyer joke*

We hadn’t yet started taking food photos regularly, but he had fish & chips, while I opted for the only vegetarian option on the menu (this is common – Kiwis are big on meat!): Vegetable Phyllo.  I also helped with his chips.  Thankfully, he's good-natured about the food-sharing portion of our relationship.  Everything was quite tasty, and we set off for Blenheim with full bellies and a functional transmission.

About 90 minutes later, we arrived at our motel.  I’d made this booking, and I was initially a bit disappointed when we were greeted with this:

We don't require 5 star accommodations, but this left something to be desired.

But upon entering the super-spacious ensuite room with a kitchenette, we were treated to this: 

Ahhh....

The “Riverview Motel” lived up to its name, after all.

So today’s final lesson? Don’t judge a book by its cover.

And remember – when you’re in New Zealand, act like an adult!