We are staying at the Guest Cottage of Te Whau Lodge in Okura on Waiheke Islsnd New Zealand.
We completed the task this morning and now we have luggage and our rental car ( comped for the whole weekend now) we can start over and have a great time.
It's going to be tricky with this driving on the wrong side though.
Well we made it 10 minutes down the road. Being oh so careful. Chris was doing his best with a car that had horrible steering and with me yelling get over every two minutes . Then we hit a curb and had a blow out on the front tire. So here we sit on the side of the road .
Chris: in my defense, and it is a weak defense I know but, the steering in that first car was really really loose. I was so disoriented driving on the left, I've done it before but it was in Turks and Caicos and the terrain was flat and the traffic was light and simple. Here, even tho it's a small island the roads are curvy and mountainous and the little villages have intersections that have roads that go every which way and you can't just stop to figure it out because there are cars all around you. With the loose steering and all I couldn't for the life of me manage to stay in the center of the lane. I keep wandering too far left and banging into the curb or getting off into the weeds to the left and the more Rhonda kept yelling get to the right, get to the right the worse it got but, not her fault, it was mine and finally I did the grand finale, I banged into the curb and boom, the front left tire blew and I knew it. Rhonda actually said , get over or you are going to blow a tire. Too late I said, I just did.
So, ten minutes in we are on the side of the road on a fairly steep incline with a blown tire. I managed to go a few feet farther and turn off into what turned out to be a private driveway and park. I'm not going to try to change a tire on this incline I said. Just call the rental people and tell the truth and we will pay whatever it takes so she did. And in true New Zealand fashion, the people were so nice.
Rhonda: Oh lord. I texted the rental car people yet again. And they again were very sweet and said no problem we will be there. And after about 30 minutes ( and two neighbors near where we pulled off the road coming out and checking on us) they showed up in two cars. These two amazing women jumped out and said take this car and we are moving your luggage . They did in 3 seconds and we were back on the road. Every single person in New Zealand has been so friendly and sweet.
So, we headed out in a newer car and it went better after that. Chris did great and I navigated as best I could . Listen "best I can" is our motto and also "no fault". We do not blame or point fingers or judge when we travel, we are doing the best we can.
We made a stop in town for lunch , a few supplies, and some tshirts and finally got back to the guest house about 3pm WITH LUGGAGE . At about sunset we got in the hot tub on our deck and watched the sail boats and toasted to another Chris and Rhonda day.
Comments