My friend Lori took me to the airport where I patiently waited to board Air New Zealand. I was so excited and nervous but knowing I had 13 hours in the plane I'd have time to settle down. The stewards on Air New Zealand were awesome. One looked dead on to Daniel Craig from James Bond:Quantum of Solace, he had the New Zealand accent and all.
As we started our decent I opened the window shade and saw the horizon of the sun rise and it was gorgeous. I started getting butterflies in my stomach. I was going to be in New Zealand!!
At customs I declared some snacks that I brought, one of them baby carrots. They took them away because they didn't have them in NZ.
I called the car rental transport and they had a driver there real quick. The first thing the driver said was you must be from North America. I hadn't even opened my mouth and then said yea how could you tell? He replied, well you're on the drivers side to get in. DANG IT! Rookie mistake #1! Reminder...they drive on the left side of the road and the drivers side is on the right.
I realized how amazing the NZers really are at first hand. I had forgotten my drivers licence back in the states. He said that's okay, we seem to have your info here. Just be careful because if you get pulled over the police will want to see it. What state, let alone country do you know of that would have rented you a car without your drivers licence? That could have gone very bad and was thankful for their leniency. Steve did warn me that there was a round about as soon as I exit their "car park" and foreigners make the mistake a lot to yield to the left instead of the right. It took me about 10 minutes to muster up enough courage to leave the car park. White knuckle and all...I did it! I had a note there STAY LEFT but also had a GPS that saved me this trip!! I had to drive through Auckland during morning rush hour and that was a bit nerve racking because it's a major city so I just made sure that there was a car in front of me the entire time.
They had a toll on the freeway that I was warned about. You don't stop to pay. It's via camera. You have two options you can stop at the gas station and pay there or call a number and give them your credit card. I opted to pay at the gas station. There I embarked on my first adventure of getting a mince meat pie. It was huge and fairly cheap. Great flavor however there was a sort of gelatin that was in it that I couldn't stomach. I did eat half.
As I left there was an on ramp with two police cars on each side and the officers outside standing next to them like a road block. My heart beats tripled and I thought this is it they're going to ask for my DL that I didn't have...and they just flagged me through. PHEW!!!
I didn't have any specific plans but to make it to Kaitaia Far North. That's where my hostile was. So I just decided to drive and stop when I wanted. No one warned me that it would take 3x as long to get to places in NZ due to their windy roads with no shoulders. There were so many picturesque scenes that I had to just drive by because there was no place to pull over. When there was a slight shoulder I took every opportunity to pull over and take pictures. Here's a few.
This was on the east side of the highway where people lived and then right across the street was this magnificent view of the water.
This is Langs Beach
This is Waipu Cove
I made a pit stop at Russel. Needed to get out and stretch the legs. I went for a walk around town. Got gas/petrol, full service. That shocked me! Someone told me if you only have a half of a tank you need to get gas at the next stop, you never know when the next one is. I found that so true! I thought I could go straight to Kaitaia from Russel but I would have to take a ferry so back on the road.
From Russel my GPS took me on a one lane windy gravel road for 27 km. I was so scared I honked my horn every time I turned a corner just in case there was another car. I made it. By the time I got to the Kaitaia was about 6pm. Floyd, my brother-in-law, told me NZ shuts down early. He wasn't joking. I took a picture of the town.
There was a Pak-N-Save open and that was it!
As soon as I checked in to the Mainstreet Lodge she said you look tired. I told her I just flew into Auckland that morning and have been driving all day. She rented me a 6 person room all to myself for $65. I knew that was too high but they didn't have my confirmation and I didn't care. I just wanted food and sleep. I walked to Pak-N-Save for some groceries and was asleep by 8:30.
The hostile conditions were extremely clean. I slept like a rock!
3 comments:
I enjoyed reading your first day. some of the first impressions you had as you were landing were a lot like mine. keep posting this, i wanted to hear a day by day run down! haha....good memory, or did you write a journal everyday?
I know my memory and knew I would have to write it all down. So I made an outline of everyday I was there.
This is so interesting!! I didn't realize what a culture shock it would be. I read your other journal entries too... I almost teared up when the bishop offered you to stay at his house. Thats so cool!
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