Daily Photo – Tunnel Hill

Here’s the thing about travelling in New Zealand. No matter where you go, you’ll either find yourself completely alone, or surrounded by a convoy of tourists in campervans. You can always spot them on their slow pilgrimage around the country – they park at odd angles until joined by fellow travellers, when they create a circular formation that resembles an impenetrable fortification you might see in a wagon train heading west across the American desert. 

They never travel light either. They have so much gear with them they look like they are either preparing to invade a country or go in search of weapons of mass destruction in a bio-contaminated area. Having left the seaside village of Kapa Point, I came across a slow moving annoyance of campervans who had taken up residents in a carpark at a place in the Catlins called Tunnel Hill. When I arrived, they were hurriedly going about their business setting up an outdoor version of London’s Savoy Grill inside their fortified circle while others seemed to be holding an annual AGM. They were British of course. They had to be British! Only the British would take a 5 minute walk to an old railway tunnel this seriously. For a nano-second I considered joining them, but then I decided I’d rather have my wisdom teeth removed with a circular saw and instead opted to stop in Owaka for a cup of coffee and a wander around the museum.