On a Deserted Island

My flight to New Zealand was a breeze. Granted, it was a 30-hour breeze, but overall it was pleasant without anything remarkable. As these things go with curses, we did have an hour delay out of Minneapolis due to missing paint on the back of the plane, however. While the captain maintained that there was no damage, the head haunchos in Miami declared that the plane must be re-painted before it could fly to LA.

But what’s an hour when you gave yourself a seven-hour layover in LA? I’ll tell you what it is: nothing. Because hours move like days when you’re sitting on the floor of LAX charging your computer.

The flight itself was amazing. Yes, it was 16 hours, but it was filled with two meals, a snack package, movies, TV, and delightful flight attendants. The plane was so big, I legitimately didn't realize we had landed.

I began my travels at 8:30 AM on February 18^th and ended at 7:15 PM on February 20^th when I fell on the floor of the hostel at Sara and Antony’s feet. Let’s not even talk about time zones.

Since then we have left Auckland and traveled north to the Bay of Islands. So now you’re all caught up on the journey. Now let me tell you my initial observations in this foreign land.

Driving on the left-hand side of the road on the right-hand side of the car is not as intuitive as you might think. In fact, it’s not very intuitive at all.

Sara and Antony blessed me with the opportunity to drive in what we considered a fairly small town. That was the first mistake. OK, I suppose that’s two mistakes.

1.     I was not prepared to drive.

2.     It was not a small town.

The real trouble started at a round about. Now I have nothing against round abouts, and in fact believe that they are intuitive. What’s not intuitive is the left rear tire and how it will connect (rather roughly) with the curb if you’re not careful when you turn left out of said round about. Not to mention that when I turned left, I went for the turn signal and ended up throwing the windshield wipers into full gear.

You might think that’s the end of the story, but moments later while I was recovering and Sara was thanking somebody for her life, Sara tells me to pull over.

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

“I can’t here! And why?”

“The trunk! The boot’s popped open!”

Apparently I had hit the curb hard enough to pop the trunk. Sara and Antony were mortified, and I convulsed into ab-splitting laughter. I was crying I was laughing so hard. In traffic.

I did manage to pull over and promptly left the driver’s side of the car and let Ant take over.

We made it to Paihia, no thanks to me, and settled in at a campsite on the shore. Do I even need to tell you that the scenery was beautiful? Ocean, shells, jungle, rocks, sunset, yadda yadda.

We cooked ourselves dinner, had way too many drinks, can probably never show ourselves at this campsite again, and overall had a successful first day that ended with us curled up in our sleeping bags.

While the birds were a little loud in their chirping this morning, the day has started out brilliantly with another cultural experience.

“I’d like a large coffee”

“So a large flat white as well?”

“A what?”

“A large flat white? 2 shots of espresso with steamed milk.”

“Oh, a latte. Yeah. What’s a long black?”

“Espresso and water.”

“That. I want that. Do you have cream and sugar?”

“No.”

“Oh. The other one. Flat white?”

“Do you want it trim as well?”

One would think that this country would be relatively easy to understand, but I underestimated their coffee customs. Also, this large coffee is the size of a Starbucks tall, and cost me $4.80. Another thing I’ve noticed? Islands are expensive.

After a shower we will be piling back into the car for today’s adventure. Sara and Antony have been planning, so I’m really quite clueless about what we’re doing. I think hobbits are the day after tomorrow, and let’s face it, that’s all I’m waiting for.

I’m happy to report that I have since driven again, and didn’t make any dents in the car. I only drove on the wrong side of the road once! Progress!