|
| 7:49am |
The collective begins to stir. Whilst
there had been some discussion about folks being awake earlier, the
judge's ruling held that 7:49am is the time of origin. It was so ordered. |
| 7:54am |
A quick glance outside to learn that yes, it seemed it rained again
last night, too. |
| 8:17am |
We made our third and last walk to
Foodtown to buy snacks and such. Unlike yesterday, the post-rainy
overnight was met with sunshine and clear skies -- yea! |
| 8:29am |
Tubby spent NZ$13.47 (rounded to 13.45 since we don't have one-cent
coins here). Despite taking photos of the flavoured milk (banana,
lime-o, strawberry, mocha and chocolate), the cheese
(all the same colour despite the different flavours) and the vampire-labeled
energy drink, he didn't buy any of those. He did, however, buy
a handful of the Nerdalicious
confections, as they are something of a favourite of mine of late. |
| 8:43am |
We got back to the hotel, dropped
our purchases into our less-than-stretch Camry, and wandered inside
to settle our bill. |
| 8:52am |
Yes, those three lengthy calls to post stuff set us bach a whopping
NZ$10.71 -- nearly $8. Well worth it, in my opinion. I was so pleased
that I had the girl give Karene and Phil FrankPens; they seemed pleased
to receive them. |
| 9:03am |
We loaded into the aforementioned
Camry, and were on our way... to buy petrol. |
| 9:16am |
A stop at Mobil revealed that using a credit card at the pump is
harder than it looked -- unless you know your PIN, you're stuck. And
Tubby's bank card wouldn't go through, so we paid cash, shelling out
$20 for 16.1 liters of petrol (gasoline). (Yes, prices are insane
here, too -- it works out to roughly $2.50 a gallon for the regular
unleaded.) |
| 9:31am |
With only a quarter tank more than
we started with (a 64 liter tank?), we motored over the Harbour Bridge
for the last time, taking in both views of less
beauty, and more. |
| 9:37am |
The lane we were in wasn't forgiving about exiting, so we found
ourselves embarking on a nearly 20 minute detour through Auckland,
mostly wandering as we meandered back to the highway. Oops. |
| 9:55am |
We're safely
back on Highway 1, where, according to the map, we want to remain
for quite some time. This seems a reasonable plan, I figure. |
| 9:56am |
It takes a bit of getting used to, seeing the distances expressed
in decimals instead of fractions. Oddly, though, I like it...
but then again, I also like math. |
| 11:03am |
We arrived at our half-way point,
about 110 kilometers from Auckland (that's perhaps 85 miles for you
non-metric types), which put it square in City Centre for Hamilton.
So we fed the meter a $2 coin and had a look around. |
| 12:08pm |
After the gracious use of their public toilet and for sharing their
city, we opted to pack it up and leave early, and let the city keep
the difference from our over-feeding the meter by 15 minutes. |
| 1:00pm |
Not representative of the bulk of
the trip, however, there was about 2km (a bit over a mile) of thick,
tree-lined highway that I rather enjoyed. |
| 1:31pm |
The final destination of the day was now ours, having racked up
the additional 108 km to get here. It went faster this time around,
a likely combination of only infrequent road work, less traffic, and
straighter highways. |
| 1:33pm |
We stopped at Kuirau Park in Rotorua,
the site of numerous geothermal
springs that contribute to, but do not alone cause, the city's
nickname "Sulphur City" to smell true to form. |
| 2:08pm |
After checking into the Heritage Hotel to secure lodging, we ventured
out to see what else was in this new world here. |
| 2:22pm |
The Warehouse claims bargains for
all. Not knowing if we could be considered part of that collective
"all", we wandered in. In a country seemingly devoid of
Target and Wal-Mart (thank goodness), it seems we've found the replacement
-- The Warehouse. A combination department store, discount shop and
video rental outfitter. |
| 3:14pm |
Sure enough, discounts are indeed for all. We escaped with only
spending about NZ$20. Go us! |
| 3:39pm |
On the way into Rotorua we'd passed
a sign pointing to Ngongotaha,
and intrigued, we now followed the arrows to this new place. |
| 3:46pm |
We'd strayed too far out of town, as we tend to do with small towns
whose extend several blocks less than I expect, and made a U-turn
at a wide spot in the road. It was there we noticed the first of a
series of rainbows out yonder. |
| 4:04pm |
As we left Ngongotaha back for Rotorua,
we were hit again with some other rainbows, and the appearances soon
explained themselves as it began to rain. |
| 4:09pm |
And rain hard, it did. We headed over to the long-anticipated, but
not yet endured, Pizza Hut. The downpour kept us in the car for several
minutes before it was clear we weren't going to out-last the rain.
(And while it would just roll off my back, the human types have a
bit more problems with their absorbent clothing and such.) |
| 5:13pm |
We emerged from the establishment
and made our way back to the hotel, with an odd fatigue surrounding
a day that seemed to be spent, mostly, sitting quietly in the car. |
| 5:22pm |
I settled in to do my updates to the faithful audience of the two
or three of you who actually suffer through my ramblings; the girl
decided to employ some sort of power nap, and Tubby doodling about
with clouds and trying to make a house of cards out of soda straws. |
| 8:03pm |
I've written all I'm going to write;
the girl is, for all intensive purposes out cold, and Tubby has a
bewildered look on his face, as though he still can't comprehend why
stacking round straws more than two tiers high isn't going to work.
(And as much as I'd like to hope otherwise, he is a product of the
California school system, so I regret he may not figure this one out.) |
| 8:34pm |
31 minutes and everything is posted, yea! |
| 8:47pm |
Well, given this place offers 6 private
spas, I feel as though I can soak in the 40°C water (about 103°F)
without too much fear from some overly tall, dressed humans walking
in on me. Ta-ta! |
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