Saturday, March 23: Cloudy in the morning, a lot of places in fog, clearing somewhat during the day, showers in the evening
Jarrad’s (airbnb, $72.6)
A day for an early start. I had managed to get to bed before 10:00 last night, and was awake @ 5:30 for the alarm. Had the remains of the orange juice, a cup of coffee, then what was left of the milk. Everything packed up OK and I was ready to go by 6:30. Was down at the bus an hour before it left and realised I could have taken one of the city buses down, since they started early enough. Next time set the alarm for 6:00.
Bus driver turned up about half an hour before departure and loaded my stuff as the last to come off. Had enough time to find a dairy with a ham & cheese roll for $4, which was then breakfast proper. Bus driver was very insistent on leaving on time, as I could see from my front seat. Anyway we were in good time arriving in Hamilton where there was enough time for a pee, and we left on the dot. A bit of traffic on the motorway in Auckland (could see Rayna’s kayaking course in Manukau), but nothing to cause a delay and we were also on time in Auckland.
Here I decided to hire a locker for the suitcase ($3) and then go for a run around the block to hunt for a pie. Found an Irving’s for $2, was a bit gristly, but kept me from starving. Back at the terminal had quite a bit of time to spare and watched while a technician tried to repair the bus’s back door. This bus was a double decker and I was hoping for a front seat on the top and positioned myself to get my luggage loaded as soon as possible and eventually boarding was commenced.
By the time I got on, three of the four front seats were taken, and one woman was occupying a seat with her handbag. When I noticed that no one was taking the reserved seat I went up and asked her to move her stuff, and grabbed the seat. Bird’s eye view.
There was one stop for twenty minutes after an hour and a half at Gateway North Motel and Café, SH1 to the north of Kaiwaka, and although the driver had warned about getting a coffee cup without a lid (“If it was beer you wouldn’t spill a drop”) one Canadian woman who eventually took one of the front seats that had become free went ahead and spilled her coffee, and some of it flowed as far as my seat so that my small pack and my jeans are now also coffee stained.
Pretty much on time in Paihia and got the i-site to order me a taxi, and was delivered up here just after 5:30. One French couple who are also guests (Magalie & Frank) were there to greet me and I quickly unpacked some stuff and freed up the small pack, and took off back into town for dinner (Chicken Tikka for $20.5 with butter naan and pickles, tonight at the Indian place from 2015, now called Delhi-6, 41 Williams St).
The road from Whangarei to Kawakawa was surprisingly unfamiliar but then I realised the last time I had driven it was 2010 on the long run where I couldn’t decide to stay near Whangarei and went on to here, and the shaving cream fell out of its basket in the camper, was punctured, and a lot of fun was had after dinner cleaning up the remains.
When I got back from dinner (had made a mess of my shirt with some of the sauce) Jarrad was back with his fishing friends.
