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Ah, New Zealand, the nature, the lovely people and the lovely roads. Curvaceous with no protective barriers and interestingly enough, one side usually drops off about a hundred feet. It was along one of these roads that my friends and I were driving along in our crappy van that we had bought to travel around the North Island, and possibly the South if it would make it that far (which it turned out after about a month and a half of travelling, that it wouldn’t).

We were a few hours outside the Bay of Islands driving along some back road and going around a curve when the brakes decided to fail. We went off the side of the road and the van flipped over. It was an interesting experience, hanging upside down. Thank god we had been wearing seatbelts and amazingly enough of all the turns we could have taken, it wasn't off a cliff. We all got out and stood there, looked at each other and then just started laughing. We wondered if we could do it again.

People stopped and asked if we were alright and looked a little put off that we were so amused at the situation. Someone called the cops, while my friend who was driving went off to talk to the cop, my other friend and I started to unpack the van which would in no way venture any further.

Suddenly the van started to move and someone called out to move. We began to run but only managed a few feet before it crashed down on top of us. My hip was trashed underneath it and I couldn’t see my friend at all. Luckily enough a few cars worth of people showed up and managed to get it off within a matter of minutes. My friend was okay, but I nearly broke my hip and was rushed off to the hospital.

With a few painkillers, however, I was alright and was out in a matter of hours. It was such a small town that we ended up in that the locals kept asking if we were the girls who had had the car accident. I was just happy that I was still alive. Somebody somewhere must like me!