Breakdown on the road through New Zealand's Southern Alps
Isthmus Peak walk, New Zealand You are a traveller. You are sitting in the middle seat of a 20 year old Nissan Caravan chugging desperately up a mountain tunnel stretching away from Milford Sound, New Zealand. The tunnel looks as if it had been carved out by the dwarves of Middle Earth long, long ago. There are metal reinforcements bolted slap-shod along the walls of the tunnel that seem slightly battered and are dripping with water. You expect the whole thing to collapse at any minute. Your companions are silent. The bearded one is trying to avoid potholes on the darkened road. The curly haired one has the permanent grimace of an oncoming driver moments before a head on collision. At the entrance to Homer Tunnel near Milford Sound You survive the tunnel and drive back along the road away from Milford Sound, then through Queenstown. There is a campsite at Moke Lake that can only be accessed by an 8km dirt road. You stay there for two nights. Without any phone signal, you ...