Riders of Rotel

Vicki and I became acquainted with Rotel on our first trip to Europe, in 1979. It is a touring arrangement consisting of a bus and huge tractor-trailer. Passengers ride by day in the bus, stay in campgrounds, cook their own meals, and then sleep in little compartments in the trailer (“coffins” Rebecca and Rachel called them back in 1989; I think Vicki had told them Rotel was a traveling vampire troop). See illustration. I'd guess they can carry 50 or more people. We have seen them, over the years, in London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Denali, and other such places. Fiordlands National Park, where we are just now, camping at Lake Te Anau, is such a world-class place—one of the four adjoining national parks that comprise NZ's great Southwest World Heritage Site—and it is strangely reaffirming to see Rotel here too. We'll be camping in Te Anau Monday and Tuesday, do the Milford Tramp Wednesday-Saturday, staying in DOC huts, and then will spend Saturday and Sunday nights at the lodge in Milford Sound. Monday we'll do some sea-kayaking in the Sound before returning to Te Anau and resting up for the Routeburn Tramp, two days later. Milford Sound has internet, but we probably won't post any blog pix for a week or so. Periods of rain are forecast on the Milford Tramp Wednesday through Friday, but that is par for the course here. In Hawaii, they say “no rain, no rainbow.” Here it would be “no rain, no rain forest, nor glacier, nor fiord.” Nor sandflies.