Hamilton – Returning to Te Ika-a-Māui

43. Rotorua – Paihia

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. Read more…

28. Whanganui – New Plymouth

Friday, March 8: Rain on and off throughout the day

Paul’s (airbnb, $37.6)

Made the acquaintance of Sid & Angela at breakfast this morning, and a discussion of criticality followed – he was an (Indian) epidemiologist in public health, and I never found out what she did, except that she plays the piano rather well, and the upright in the lounge room was in tune. They escaped rather quickly after that and I was left on my own with Marina & Brennagh.

Surprise, surprise was that Dempsey’s had refunded me the full $108 I was asking for. There is a real issue of getting email through to them, though, as mine was already labelled as spam. I deleted my remark on their facebook page and will leave it at that for a while. Read more…

4. Auckland – Ohakune

Tuesday, February 12: Very cloudy to begin with, some drizzle, later changeable & somewhat warmer

Arawa Lodge, 43 Arawa St, Ohakune 4625 (airbnb, $50.8)

I was awake from about 5:00 onwards and got out of bed just before the alarm rang at 6:00. Not an eardrum bursting experience, but will do just in case I snooze off. Turning the thing off seemed to require going through the whole procedure.

No one else was up, although eventually Adam did make an appearance. I was concentrated on finishing the liquids, the yoghurt and the toast, and when that was done, the rest of the stuff had to be packed into the suitcase and the large backpack. I was wearing the boots today, but the shopping of the last couple of days made up for the space saved. Anyway an elephant was required again, but it all went very quickly and I was all set @ 7:15, waited around for a while and then decided to push off for the bus. Read more…