After bidding the possums goodnight I slept well, the best I have in New Zealand. A solid 7 hours, maybe a little more. The walk to the shower in sandals and a towel was fortunately unwitnessed and I had what was a good shower between the trees, under the open sky.
Back in my cabin I stopped to track the football, a fine result meaning I started the day feeling excellent on all counts. Five minutes into my journey I was on the road my overnight hotel was on, albeit still a 90 minute drive away. It’s quite a long road.
I could have gone straight there, enjoyed Auckland for the day. I didn’t want to do that, not in the mood for a city, too early to check in. Instead I took the scenic route, found myself driving through what looked and felt like England on a hot summer day. Green fields, gentle hills, birds and insects enjoying the flowers on the verge. I could have been in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire or South Nottinghamshire; it felt like home.
I stopped to photograph wild flowers, a colourful display by the road. Further on I stopped to photograph some water.
The local legend made me laugh. “We killed him, ate him, made him into fishhooks and used his jaw as a bite indicator.” As you do.
Another stop more walking down hills, getting hot, photographing water.
I cheated at the final stop, got out of the car, stood at the top of the bank, photographed from there.
By just after 1pm I was in the motel, asking if I could check in early and get my washing done. The Sikh at reception showed me my room, sold me washing powder for a dollar, swapped a note for the coins needed to operate the machine. If the motel had internet access I’d have been very happy with it, the room has a fridge and a microwave, a dining table, comfortable chairs, two beds. It’s all basic stuff but it all works nicely. Just not the internet.
The hotel does almost have the internet advertised. It only has 200MB of data available for use. Given I needed to call the car hire company to find out where to drop off my car and was planning to use Skype for that, that’s 200MB pretty much gone already.
It’s farcical. It’s borderline fraudulent. At home 200MB is literally 8 seconds usage.
New Zealand really doesn’t understand basic service delivery. Car hire was sold as ‘meet and greet’ at the airport, I had to call to be picked up, got left stood in pouring rain, don’t know where they’re expecting the car to be left or how I’m meant to get back to the airport. Multiple hotels failed miserably on basic things like drinkable water or usable internet. Almost all of them failed miserably on ‘quiet night’s sleep’.
It’s a pretty country but don’t visit. Go to the UK and Iceland instead. Even British hotels are better than this.
You have an update because I cheated. I did my laundry, hung it to dry in my room then went to find a late lunch. Chicken in pastry, basil and garlic beef, the local Thai providing lovely food but also a good ‘net link, letting me complete my call and upload today’s photographs before the starter arrived.
That might be because the starter and main arrived together. I didn’t mind, ate both.
Only 4km walked today, although half of that was on hills needing good walking shoes. Today’s drive wasn’t terribly long either.
Tonight’s hotel is my last in New Zealand. I’m hoping for a good sleep again, it’s going to be a long day tomorrow. About 45 hours long, midnight to midnight.