Roadtrip: it begins!

Despite having had a late night, I still managed to wake up early, so promptly turned on the tv and watched the various morning shows whilst I packed up my bags once again. I still can’t believe I am finding packing such a bane and that I am still rubbish at it, you’d think by now I would have it down to a fine art!

Once packed, I checked out and went for a wander down the K Road, not that there was anything different to see, it was just nice to walk along in the sun. I enjoyed stopping at Starbucks for morning coffee and a read of the local paper. As not a lot happens in NZ, the paper itself (a broadsheet) was very thin and took no time to read.

Back at the hostel, I collected my things and left to get the shuttle bus – the man behind the hostel reception desk offered to help me down the stairs with my luggage and I think as soon as he had started doing so, he really wished he hadn’t! I managed to negotiate my way across two roads and find the bus stop, where I had a relatively short wait until the bus arrived and soon I was on my way to the airport.

I was surprised how quick the journey was – it was supposed to take almost an hour but instead took only twenty minutes. I then negotiated my way into the airport and found a spot to wait in Arrivals, with one eye on my book and the other on the Arrivals board. I could see Mike’s flight listed as being expected to arrive early and sure enough it did! It landed half an hour early and less than half an hour after that he emerged through the doors. It was good to see a friendly face from home once again!

We made our way on the shuttle bus to the car hire place and picked up our lovely silver Nissan Sunny, then headed off on our road trip. No sooner had Mike turned the key in the ignition then it started raining. Big rain. The biggest rain I have seen in ages – worse than in Cairns! We could barely see through the windscreen but somehow Mike managed to make it through with my expert navigation skills, towards Otorahanga (it helped that I had been there before recently so was able to recognise some things which meant I was pretty sure I knew we were on the right tracks!). As the rain eventually started clearing, we saw an amazing double rainbow – two perfect arcs, one over the other; really beautiful.

When we eventually arrived at the hostel after stopping briefly at Woolies, we checked in and chilled out watching tv for a bit and chatting, before heading out to find some dinner. Not surprisingly, seeing as it was after 8pm everything was closed other than the fish and chip shop, so that had to suffice, it was good though. Back at the hostel, before turning in, we had a couple of beers and I heard about Mike’s visit to Dubai and caught up on all the gossip from home (well, not really, boys are rubbish at gossip, it was more just some news!).