I have to admit I have been seriously homesick lately but I have a new appreciation for NZ today.

Scenario: Last night driving home from Dunedin to Christchurch, van overheats and I am left stranded 10km from the nearest village. Am not in the AA (could be the moral of the story here) so make several frantic calls to hubby. Then, truck stops, man gets out, happens to be a mechanic. Looks at van, hops in and tells me to drive 6 kms to his workshop, where he proceeds to fix it (on a Sunday afternoon, he was on the way to the pub). Meanwhile his wife (who was in the office doing the accounts) stops what she is doing, makes me a cuppa, plies me with biscuits and chats to me while we sit in the sunshine waiting for van news. 45 mins later, he has fixed radiator and tries to accept a paltry $20 'just for the antifreeze'
Now picture same scenario in UK: you break down in middle of nowhere and no-one stops. If a man should stop, you become suspicious and certainly wouldnt let him hop in your van for fear you may never be seen alive again. Even if he was genuine, you would be expecting him to charge you triple his normal fee to take advantage of the situation. What a contrast.

What a great story



have had similar happen when my motorbike went pop in the uk, dont be on such a downer about the place
not everyone there is a thief, rapist, mugger, paedofile.

Same thing happened to us when my car broke down once in Lyme Regis.

A lady there even entertained my kids for the afternoon while we waited for the parts.

Got to love the South Island

How lovely to not only give up their time to help you, but to refuse a reward aswel..Awesome peoplel

So where did this happen to you in the UK then?

Is the moral of this story ' Not everyone is a bag of sh!te in this big wide world of ours. Many people are good-hearted and kind'

I know there are good kind people in the uk too, but unfortunately the scary crimes just make you suspicious of everyone. It's a big shame.
And it hasn't happened to me in the uk as I made sure I was in the AA, the thought of breaking down on the M1 somewhere was too worrying to contemplate. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

So no scary crimes in NZ then?

I would say more naive than paranoid

Not sure where you lived in the UK but I've several stories where total strangers helped me, and I have also returned those favours to total strangers.

And to put a dampener on your story, I once gave someone a lift in NZ and they ripped off my CD collection whilst I was filling up at the petrol station

There's nice and nasty peeps in both countries

No, not naive, so no need to be condescending. I've lived in four different areas in NZ, and about ten in the uk and based on experience in my opinion (if I am allowed to have one) is that NZ is safer in general.

Whilst waiting 4 hours by a car with 3 bent rims and blown out tyres yesterday up on the Lewis pass, I was pleased at least 6 cars stopped and offered help. Jeez there are some serious potholes up there - Nelson to CHCH in just 13 short hours. Although thoughts of Deliverance did spring to mind at times.

In London about 20 years ago, I was driving alone when I got a flat tyre and pulled over to the side of the road, only to realise that it was the edge of a gypsy encampment. I was a little nervous when a young lad came out to see if he could help me. Instead of taking all the wheels off the car and cutting the body up for scrap metal, he kindly got the spare tyre out of the boot, jacked up the car and changed the tyre for me. Never asked for anything, or accepted anything i offered.

There are truly good and bad people the whole world over.

Were you on the Rainbow Road?

Where or what is the Rainbow road? We were stranded on SH7 about 20mins out of springs junction. Thankfully it was warm and sunny.