rush to Rotorua

An interesting aside: the annual Run for a Reason -- at the end of May -- has just been cancelled. Due to corona virus concern :-(

Here in NZ -- like WA -- there are few cases, there is a lot of worry. Though the best stories of toilet paper panic buying are still from Australia...

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Today Deb and I fly from Queenstown to Auckland. There are perhaps a dozen people wearing face masks, mostly Asians. Lots of signs about washing hands. Not much else. Though I believe that less people are travelling, even within NZ.

We start the day with an alarm, set for seven o'clock. The sun is barely up, crazy daylight saving. No wonder we have been sleeping till 8 or 9.

Pack our cases (or, in my case, stuff it). Load the car and leave. Fill up with fuel on the way, it takes me several minutes to find the lever to open the fuel cap.

It's an easy drive to the airport, it's always easier going back, the area is now familiar. I drop off the key and make sure that the extra day had been accounted for. It has... of course.

We check in, then it's time for a light breakfast, at the airport. We each have a croissant with ham and cheese, quite tasty, very salty. The life has been crushed from the croissants in a sandwich toaster.

There's a full security scan to get on the plane. We are fed a single biscuit, okay, it's only two hours in the air. The seats are... magnificent! Well, not the seats themselves. Not much padding, no lean back at all, comfortable enough. But with sooo much space between each row! Enough space for me to stretch out my legs.

Another big positive review for Air New Zealand :-)

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The plane is ten or more minutes late taking off. The original flight was cancelled -- less passengers travelling? -- so we are now a bit more than an hour later than my original plan. No worries except that it's a long drive to Rotorua.

Our rental car -- Budget, this time -- is another Toyota corolla. I liked the first and it's good to have a familiar car. (Though i'm still not sure whether the headlights are turning themselves on and off, they seem to be...)

We drive out of the airport and onto the freeway...

I'm glad I have Deb as navigator. The GPS speaks but Deb explains it better. I have our accommodation set as a waypoint, starting the drive is still confusing. Mostly when I need to pick the correct lane ahead of a change of direction. But within 20 minutes we're just following the freeway. Then the highway.

Unfortunately the highway is designed to avoid all towns... which makes it difficult to get lunch. There is nowhere to stop -- no towns, no shops, no cafes...

Finally... a cafe. We stop for a late lunch at The Pink Pig. It's a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Or, at least, on a stretch of highway with nothing else in sight except rolling farmland. Oh, and the building is painted bright pink.

I buy a pie -- tasty but has spent too long in the heater. Deb bus a toasted cheese sandwich. Due to a misunderstanding, I also get a toasted cheese sandwich. Which works out quite well. I'm happy to eat half for lunch, the rest is saved for later. It's also a rather nice sandwich: plenty of cheese and the cheese tastes real rather than processed.

We continue driving and I predict -- correctly -- that there will now be plenty of cafes. We're soon into the next town, Matamata. Which I finally remember as the town near Hobbiton. I remember when I see the sign pointing to Hobbiton.

btw: I do ask, several times, What's the mata mata? I also keep reminding Deb that our flight was sux one two. I worry that our boats will be muddy from hiking. Luckily we are not sleeping in a tint... and so on. Ahhh, some jokes just never get old :-)

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At 5pm we arrive at our motel, the Capri on Fenton. We're not due till tomorrow...

I messed up the booking. Today, I don't even know what day of the week it is, that adds to the confusion. The nice man at reception shuffles rooms and adds a day. We double-check the day we will be leaving. So we end up in a slightly larger room at the same daily rate for one day more than I counted. All good :-)

As I explain to Deb, my mind was not really in focus as I planned this trip. Just before the last scan? she asks. Yep.

It's a nice room, though I wonder about the smell. Until I realise... it's the Rotorua smell, of sulphur from the hot mud. Rotten eggs, surprisingly strong, not really unpleasant.

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We drive to Eat Streat (yes, that's how it's spelt) for dinner. Gnocchi, cannelloni. Both nice. I then embarrass Deb by picking my teeth.

I keep offering Deb icecream for dessert, we're usually too full. Tonight we go to the icecream shop for... yes... icecream :-)

Back home for coffee. TV. Journal and sleep.

No alarm set for tomorrow. Deb has plans but there is no rush. A day -- I hope -- to relax.

Nick Lethbridge  /  consulting dexitroboper
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"The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you." … B.B. King
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