Day 7 continued
We blobbed out for the rest of the afternoon. It’s true, we briefly flirted with the idea of physical activity, as it was so hot and we hadn’t tried the swimming pools or hydro slide at all, but when we eventually got up to deck 12 in our togs, the pools and slide were closed. Not sure why. So after that false alarm it was just a matter of relaxing in our cabin again. By the time we could face the idea of food, most of the restaurants were shut, so we went to the late night snack bar out on the back deck (stern? No, they were quite friendly…) There was certainly no shortage of staff on the ship. They seem to work long hours, and are mostly busy, but some must have a terribly tedious time of it. Some of the duty free stores hardly ever had any customers, for example.
Day 8 Auckland
Leisurely breakfast as our scheduled time to disembark, being from deck 9, was 10:15. In fact the disembarkation process was extremely smooth, and we were out waiting to be picked up by 10:30. Another hot day, and we spent the next few hours being entertained but also getting very tired and burnt to a crisp at the zoo. Finally said goodbye to family and headed down South early afternoon. We had an optimistic plan of making it as far as we could before dark, and possibly making it all the way to Wellington. However, we were so bored by the Auckland – Hamilton leg of our journey that we decided to once again stop off in Taupo for the night. It’s lucky that we did, too, because there was a terrible crash just south of Levin which would have brought us, as well as thousands of others at this busiest time of the year, to a complete standstill.
We booked a lovely lakeside motel by remote control (thanks, hubby), and it was very pleasant to be able to check in while it was still warm enough for a swim. It was 6:30 by then but still 26 degrees in Taupo. After a quick dip we went to an overpriced mock English pub for dinner, and ate it while looking out over the lake at a gorgeous sunset. The terrible fires over in Australia are clearly still sending enough particulate matter into the atmosphere to make our evening skies beautiful. Whole towns on fire now! Those poor people, so awful, especially so near Xmas. Not to mention the wildlife. I hope they can catch a break soon.
Short walk along the lake front after dinner, looking for any stray Pokémon, but it got cold fairly quickly, I suppose because of the altitude? So it was back to the motel for another early night. (By the way – to any Pokémon players in team yellow – there are a lonely couple of Pokémon in the redwood forest at Te Mata that wasting away as no one has visited. Please stop by and grow the gym. For anyone else – especially teams blue and red – nothing to see here).
Next day (is it day 9 if we aren’t on board any more? No, I think I need to knock the counting on the head now).
Taupo – Wellington.
An early start as the girls have been invited to a pool party in Wellington this afternoon. On the road by 8 am and no visit to the army museum at Waiouru today. The girls split the driving between them so I could get to look at the view. The Desert Road is definitely a national treasure, what amazing scenery, very prehistoric. Watching and critiquing other people’s driving is also entertaining as well as educational. Brunch at the Brown Sugar cafe in Taihape, definitely the best thing about the town, even taking into account the giant cast iron sculpture of a gumboot, and always very busy.
At Ohau we saw where the truck had crashed through the fence and into the cemetery the day before, causing such traffic chaos. The girls tell me the driver tragically died*. You could see where there were black tyre marks on the road, I assume this means he was desperately trying to apply the brakes while swerving? Driving is certainly a dangerous business. The sooner it is taken over by automation, the better, in my opinion.
By then it was early afternoon and the day was heating up – 23 degrees already. Sadly the news not so good on the Wellington pool party front – apparently the weather deteriorating down there and putting the whole get together in jeopardy. And, indeed, as we got further south, it clouded over, the temperature dropped, and we saw spots of rain. Straight back home, then, to a rapturous welcome from the dogs, and we all flopped into bed, overcome with lassitude and ennui.
Christmas Eve tomorrow! Better put the tree up…
The End
*fake news, apparently! There was a death, as it turns out, but it was someone who had a medical event in an oncoming car and crossed the centre line, forcing the truck to swerve off the road. Better news for the truck driver, obviously, although still stressful – and doesn’t change my opinion about automated driving (although I wonder what the truck would be programmed to do in that case? Presumably the car with the sick person in it wouldn’t have driven into oncoming traffic in the first place.)