So I was talking to a friend the other day and a few stories came up that we haven't put on the blog yet. It really made me realize that when we let so much time pass in between entries we end up just giving you the highlights on what we've been up to and leave out some of the good stuff.

We promised you a while back that we'd tell you the story of Rach's pillow and pj's traveling over 200k to find her after she'd left it in a hotel so here it is! :)

We were in a small town called BlackBall on the S. Island of New Zealand. The charm of this town is all built around the 1 B&B called the BlackBall Hilton and the fact that less than 20 people live there year round. Because of this, we decided to park the campervan for a night and stay at The Hilton. Well, for those of you that don't know, Rach hurt her back years ago and still suffers from it. She started sleeping with a special neck pillow a while back and it's really helped so she brought a mini one with her on this trip! This is one special pillow :) The pillow has a cover on it with a pocket that she tucks her pj's into. Well, we left the BlackBall Hilton, went for a hike, and then drove over 200km south to a town called Franz Joseph. It was only when we were going to sleep that night that she realized her pillow was gone.. she'd left it on the bed at The Hilton.

The next morning she immediately called the hotel to see if they had it. They did, but the woman was working alone for the next 3 days and wouldn't even be able to take it to the post office to send it. We are on the go so much that in 3 days we would have no idea where to tell her to send it. Rach tried asking if there was anyone in the town that she could pay to bring it to her and there was litterally no one around in this small town. We thought about going back, but really didn't want to have to drive back up there because 200k of coastal roads in a campervan takes a looong time. Rach really wanted her pillow though so she went to work.

First, she talked to the Top 10 Holiday Park where we were staying and found out that there was a bus that came from a nearby town that might stop and drop it off if she could find a way to get it from the hotel to this bus station in Greymouth (about 30km's from the hotel). She then called the hotel to see if there was a way that they could get her pillow there, but there was no way she could leave and no one else to take it. Rach then called the Top 10 Holiday Park in Greymouth to see if they had anyone she could pay to drive up to BlackBall to get it.. they didn't. After a long conversation with them and Rach trying to pull strings by being a "Top 10 Member" (you should be laughing now because that's totally ridiculous) the woman finally gave her a number of a local taxi company that she could try. She called the taxi company and explained the situation to the dispatcher (and we think owner) named Scott. Scott sympathized with Rach, but told her he just couldn't do it because there was no way for her to pay him (they only take cash) and he had been burned by this situation before. Don't ask me how she did it, but this hard no soon turned into him going to get the pillow personally and trusting her to mail a check to him for his services. Of course, Rach mailed it immediately, but we still can't believe he did this.

So long story short, that night around 6pm the pillow was delivered to our campervan safe and sound. It had traveled over 200km's from The Hilton to the Greymouth information center and then placed onto a public bus and delivered to the holiday park who then hand delivered it to us. Crazy huh? Rach, her pillow and her pj's lived happily ever after :)

So we'll try and be better about sharing good stories like this one.. we have a ton! We still owe you an entry on our time up the coast and will have that up soon.

Miss and love you,
Rach and Steph