Camper Van
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Fri 4 Jul 2014 22:47
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Off to Auckland to Collect the
Camper Van and Onward
 Tuesday
the 1st of July. Kate – Ioleta, gave us a lift up
the hill to the bus stop. Someone was eagerly awaiting
breakfast.
  Off we went at eight o’clock. By half
past we were going through an area where to the left
the morning mist made for a nice photograph, but to the
right was amazing.
 We have never
seen such a total white blanket.
 At midday we pulled into Auckland, trotted from the bus station, down a couple of
streets to the main ‘high street’ - Queen Street, just missing the transfer bus
to the airport. Never mind they run every ten minutes. Time for our excitement to build – or – in my case
anticipation of sleeping in a fridge, we’ll be
fine said the optimist.........
  At the airport we had some lunch and
Bear used the freephone to call Apollo, fifteen minutes later a smiling chap
collected us for the short ride to their base. In the reception a chap told me
the girls in front of him had been there nearly four hours. Oh dear. Our new
friend had been there for nearly three. Oh dear. We cheerily sat for the long
haul. Maybe it was a queue that had formed over lunchtime we hoped. Vera called
us forward and went through the small print. We had to pay $5000 in bond. If we
paid $44 a day we could get the bond halved. But either way you lose if there is
any kind of incident, our fault or not. We told her that we had no plans for
anything untoward to occur and politely refused the $7 a day to cover for tyres
and windscreen. That all done off Vera went for our
wagon. The smiling captain of the new nest
between horrendous downpours.
   Vera and Bear
went all round checking for scratches, using a mirror on a stick to check the
roof, I stayed aboard to explore cupboards as the rain fell again. All done and
dusted in two hours. Final signatures and time for
the great land At-Venture to begin.
We had
originally planned to sail out but would have regretted not exploring New
Zealand properly and missing the photographic opportunities the Lord of the
Rings films had shown us. It worked out the difference between insuring Beez to
go out to sea as opposed to leaving her on the hard has paid for the wagon. So
all it will cost us is the fuel. Marvellous so here we are with a plan
forming.
  The layout of
Mabel – after Rod’s auntie. OK, Mabel the Merc she is
then.
   The
advertising pictures. Yes, we can see ourselves parked next
to water, but, don’t see ourselves in vests –
not in mid winter. I see the bottle of red –
now and again.......... The funny bit in the literature was when we read that
two medium built people would find it “snug” passing by the sink. Sooooooooo the
two of us stand no chance, we will operate a one way
system.........
 We have to say Mabel looks ‘just like on the packet’.
 Out into the Auckland rush hour and more rain. The original plan was to
leave the depot and head straight for the supermarket to stock up. At gone five
o’clock we headed to see Rod and Brenda – State of Mind at the marina
in Whangarei with one stop at the Liquor Store where a couple of smiling chaps
gave me a present of two glasses. I had a celebratory snifter en route.
Clearly, I was driving, only right you
should do the induction journey. Yeah, yeah, pull the
other one.......Huh. Brenda had done a wonderful lamb curry. I
introduced Rod to Ancestry and a fun evening adding a few leaves to his family
tree. Mistake ???
Wednesday the 2nd.
We got up and went out to breakfast. Rod kindly drove us to Arthur’s Emporium
and the Para Rubber to get some bits we needed for Beez. We had a routing
meeting where Rod and Brenda gave us some local knowledge about what we couldn’t
miss as tourists. We bade them a fond farewell and headed off to the Warehouse
and Countdown. Major supplies for me to label and list tomorrow. We met Paul and
Kate at half six in the Yacht Club for supper. Home to Beez for our last night
before the great explore. I went to sleep after checking Rod’s tree, twenty five
people. I woke up to fifty two, clearly he had been doing some fun stuff, sadly,
there were now three Mabel's. One dying at sixty two, one at seventy two and one
at ninety nine – clearly he will now be called Pecky Fingers and will have to be
stopped, very soon or risk the loss of his two index fingers. To add insult to
injury there were two James, two called John born three years apart and several
other dodgy characters. A little tidying to be done.
  Considering Mabel has done over seventy five thousand kilometres, she is in incredible
condition. The thing we are most thrilled with is the
Tourist Box. This gadget fixes on the windscreen, has a GPS in it and
tuned to the radio on 102.9 goes ‘ping, pong’ ping pong’ every time you are
heading somewhere of note. Very nice voices tell us the local history, which
tourist ‘must do’s’ and where the camp sites are. Chuffed, or what. We have
always loved going on the open-topped, Hop On Hop Off tourist buses. This gadget
is like having our own private tour guide and no need for earphones. If there is
nothing doing it plays middle of the road music, no adverts and no DJ babbling.
There is even a free phone number to ring with specific questions.
Winner.
Thursday the 3rd. Up
and sorting Mabel. All tins labelled, logged and stowed. A long day up and down
the ladder loading Mabel as a mini home on wheels. Showers and ready for the
off. Farewell to Beez and hit the road back to sort out Pecky fingers taking
supper that wouldn’t fit in the fridge.
“I thought you would be proud of me,
I added more and cross-checked ALL the details before I pressed accept.” Yes
but. Any tiny detail that is different means a new person. “Oh.” Fun done we
couldn’t be swayed to sleep in our bed aboard State of Mind, we braved going to
Mabel and snuggled down. I was so grateful that Brenda sent me off with a
‘hotty’, my first hot water bottle experience since my nana sent me to bed with
one at the age of six. Must nip forthwith on the morrow to The Warehouse and buy
one in a fluffy jacket.
Friday the 4th. A
interesting night in our new nest. I tried to deglove my little finger on a unit
edge rescuing my escaping pillow – not used to a gap behind us. There were a few
tugs of war with the quilt, but other than that, a fairly successful beginning.
Don’t think I need it any colder though. Breakfast on State of Mind, a
quick check of the activity of Him called Pecky Fingers and out
............
On the Road.
ALL IN ALL A BUSY FEW
DAYS
A NEW LEARNING
CURVE |
