 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
In a typical twist of direction, we opted to drive onward versus spending the night and having to face 300 km to Wellington tomorrow from Napier, so we pushed ahead and stopped instead in Palmerston North, which gave us an extra 150 km for the day, and that much closer to Wellington (where we'll spend our final two New Zealand nights before leaving for Australia).
| 7:49am | I would have sworn there was a floodlight turned on, but it seems the sunlight pouring into our hotel room through the southern-facing window was just that bright. Blasted gaseous star illuminating our planet and warming the earth's crust. Well, not those things, which are good, but for waking me up, which is bad. |
| 8:39am | After much lolli-gagging, we were ready to roll. It seems our brief, 47 minute time to post stuff, and for me to read and reply to my massive fan mail (messages last night: 1) cost us a staggering NZ$9.40. But being the caring, sharing duck that I am, I let the girl pay. |
| 8:51am | We made a stop at The Warehouse again, which is located next to a Countdown (supermarket). I knew it was a good day when I found 5c in the street (apparently, we use the c and not the ¢ symbol 'round here). I would also like to note that, had I been one of you humans, and not 10 inches (25 cm) from the ground, I'd likely have not found this latest addition to my net worth. |
| 9:02am | After a wander through Warehouse Stationary, which did not sell the pushpins Tubby was looking for (yes, we're on holiday and he wanted pushpins), we headed over to The Warehouse. Opposite the entrance is a jewelry store that had a rather big gathering outside its halfway open roll-up door. We never figured out what was going on, though. |
| 9:11am | We got out of The Warehouse in record time, having purchased four boxes of pushpins, some binder clips for 99c to be used to keep our chips and pretzels fresh (lacking chip-clips, we are), and some sundry confectionary, including those dang Nerdalicious. |
| 9:14am | We breeched the entrance of Countdown, a much more super supermarket than was Foodtown (although given the Countdown truck leaving Foodtown we saw days ago, I suspect they may be in cahoots with one another). The breads aisle was impressive -- running at least 18 meters (~50 feet) in length, there were numerous cash registers, and if the toddlers in your charge have any musical talent -- or a total lack thereof -- you can get them started as a New Zealand Idol star. |
| 9:28am | Tubby and I escaped with only NZ$10.50 worth of damage to the wallet, which was minor given the number of items we loaded up with. |
| 9:31am | A quick stop at Shell taught us our little hired car can swallow petrol like an alcoholic on pay day. NZ$56 and 41 liters later, and the needle went from 1/4 to full. The gas was pumped by Richard, a Shell employee, who showed up before I could pump my own gas. Odd, really, but there it was. I have a sneaking suspicion that petrol prices are set either by committee, or by the government. In the five days we've been motoring around this country, with only one exception, every gas station, everywhere, in 500 km of driving, has been selling the regular unleaded equivalent at $1.239 a liter. (The one exception was way the heck in the middle of nowhere.) I would give my left wing for that kind of consistent pricing in the States... imagine, whether you're in downtown San Francisco, or beautiful downtown Evanston, Wyoming, it's still the same price. |
| 9:35am | As we floundered onto the highway, we passed a McDonalds (possibly the only one in town, if you can believe that), but they made up for their quantity with quality, offering a McCafé on the corner of Fenton and ? Streets. (If memory serves, a McCafé has all the regular offerings, plus a coffee and biscuit and mini-bakery case, sort of like Starbucks, which has a staggering lack of presence in town, again, as near as I can tell). |
| 10:35am | We rolled into Taupo, and had a look-see around the place. |
| 10:59am | And with a flourish of the dorsal feathers, we again took flight toward Napier. It it were not for the fact we were heading south and not north, we could have been in a position to offer a lift to two rather pretty hitchhiker doves... pretty enough to set aside the "no hitchhikers" rule I normally adhere to whilst on road trips. (But I read somewhere that anything that happens when you're in a different country doesn't count, so an exception argument could have been made.) |
| 12:04pm | Motoring along, Tubby was apparently stuck either with the ugly stick (again) or an idea, so he stopped our luxury Camry and took a few photos. I waited patiently in the car and nibbled on another of those yummy Nerdalicious confections. Oh, the pictures are here, here, and here. |
| 12:13pm | Apparently annoyed with me eating all of his precious little candies, His Baldness is now taking to snapping photos while traveling along at 100 km/h. Brilliant strategy, but I guess that means I'll just have to sneak the candy later. Oh -- the pictures, sorry. How's about this one, and this one (pretty, although I'm pretty sure pine trees shouldn't be this color, given it's an evergreen tree). |
| 12:32pm | We passed through Eskdale, a teeny little town comprised of a lot of vineyards, a War Memorial Church, and a blonde wearing a white hat. (I can't swear she's from here, though.) |
| 12:47pm | The little green sign told us we'd arrived in Napier. Although for a final resting place for the day, it seemed a bit early. |
| 1:41pm | I've taken all the art deco I can take in Napier, so I made my way up to the next town to see what they had to offer. I also did grab a picture of railroad tracks that just didn't fit in Napier; look at it, or don't... it's all about free-will. |
| 2:05pm | About 20 km down the road from Napier is Hastings. And despite a mediocre effort to the contrary, I just wasn't able to get into the swing of things here. So, after a photo here and there, I just surrendered to the apathy and headed down the road. |
| 4:08pm | After, yup, about 150 km, we arrived in Palmerston North, which was our new resting place for the night. |
| 4:14pm | Given the little hotel vouchers we're traveling under, there was just one motor lodge to stay in, with 19 rooms, but at last count, we're only one of two guests here tonight. And, we got the deal with the small carton of milk we were given just now and last night. It seems New Zealand came up with the notion of the motor lodge -- the motel -- as the rest stop for travelers for a night, who weren't seeking a full-service hotel. The rooms already have a fridge and coffee pot, but the milk was for your coffee, to save you a trip out to market after a long day on the road. Neat, huh? |
| 4:36pm | A quick unloading of stuff, and we were in the car and parked into the local mall. Why? Well, food is good, but so are films. And The Day After Tomorrow opens here today -- a full calendar day before the United States -- and there was also an artsy-fartsy film opening here as well. Given my dedication to spoiling movies, I had to got on task. |
| 4:48pm | With tickets tucked under wing, we hit the food court to fill up on munchies and soda, whilst taking in the local colour. |
| 5:26pm | Waiting for my film to begin, it amused me a bit to see the mall stores all shut down at 5:30pm. It truly seems to be one of those countries that shuts down at the end of the business day (Friday nights seem to be the night to be open until 8pm in most shops, though... in the Sydney area, if memory serves, it was Thursday there). |
| 7:55pm | Movies completed, and spoiled endings to be posted. So... only click on these if you want to know how they end... and don't say I didn't warn you, eh? The Day After Tomorrow and Arthur's Dyke are now added to the spoiled list. |
| 8:04pm | Back at the motel, I'm updating, the girl is reading, and Tubby is exploring the jets in the tub. I'm expecting a loud screaming about prune hands in about 20-25 minutes or so. |
| 8:32pm | 28 minutes to the prune-hands episode. But my guess was still pretty dead on, eh? |
| 10:03pm | I guess I'm getting better at this update writing... it's been a while since the last big trip, so I was a bit worried. (A while would be defined as the Central America tour in October 2002. Sure, there was Italy, but I'll let you in on a secret -- I only took notes and wrote it when I got home, since I didn't take the laptop on that trip.) |
| 10:58pm | Well, that's that, this is posted, and I'm off to nappy-eyes. |