Sorry but this is a novel!!!
It’s 9pm, still light and we are both about to hit the sack after one of my longest days of traveling ever!
I was up early on Sunday morning as I had much to achieve before heading up to Perth airport to begin my very long day of travel. By 8.30 the bed sheets were washed and on the line and I was on my way to Nannup. I had several jobs to complete once there, the main two being feed and water all our fledgling trees and plants as it will be some time before I am back there to do it again and try out both showers for leaks. Whilst attending to the plants I discovered we now have several kangaroos living at the bottom of the block. I saw one of them on Friday when I was there and have been aware of movement amongst the bushes and trees on a couple of occasions but on Sunday there were two making themselves very at home and were not too bothered about being observed. Despite the conflict of them being there while we are trying to grow things I really like the idea of having some semi tame ones around. With this in mind I went back to the shed where I remembered there being a couple of apples in the fridge there which have been there since well before Christmas so would be past their best to say the least. However, I thought I could find them a good home and cut them into slices and placed them on one of the left over tiles. I quietly walked down the block and stopped as soon as they saw me. Neither of them were in a big hurry to leave so I went a little closer, put the tile on the floor and left. Hopefully they will get curious and take a look at what I left!
On my return I put another load of washing into the machine and got on with cleaning the house for our house sitters. I had done quite a lot of it the night before so there wasn’t much left to do. I then got changed and went to visit our lovely friends next door but one for a farewell coffee before finishing the last bit of packing and setting off to Perth at 5pm. I filled the car with fuel at Myalup as it’s 9 cents cheaper there than in Busselton and as i was passing it made sense, and I then finished my drive to the airport. I parked the car in the long stay at Terminal 1 as, although my flight that night left from Terminal 4, we actually return direct from Christchurch into T1 so it made sense. I walked from the car park to T2 where I got a taxi to T4. I have to say I don’t use taxis very often in Australia in fact I can’t remember the last time I did but I was directed to the front car and was very pleasantly surprised to find a female driver. I would guess she was of Indian descent but spoke very good English and we chatted the whole way to T4. She was interested in how long I have been in Australia and where I lived etc. it was such a pleasant surprise as in the past I seem to remember not getting two words out of any taxi driver.
There is very little to do in T4 at that time of day but sit and either play 2048 on my phone or write some more of the book. Speaking of which, I seem to have ground to a halt on that front and lost my momentum again. It’s probably to do with the shocking start to the year that I have had in terms of deaths and a hiccup in my own health but after a quick count up I seem to be close to 80,000 words so I am closing in on my original thought that there would be around 100,000. Anyway I detest airports and especially airports on my own. Somehow having Denise with me makes it all go smoothly and there is an element of panic when she is not around. The flight from Perth to Melbourne was ok, firstly there was only two of us sharing 4 seats in the row and as the guy sat on the end didn’t seem to want the extra space I lifted the armrests up, laid on the three seats and had about an hour long sleep. It was the last sleep I’ve had and am about to give up and go to bed now but I’ve just one other thing to mention.
Once in Christchurch we found our way to the hire car desk. After a short wait to collect our Nissan Qashqai I was informed that my wheels for the next two weeks was to be a Toyota Rav4. I wasn’t concerned as I have always thought they were a “boring but nice enough” sort of car. Having said that I’ve not driven a recent one. What did disappoint me was that I was told there were no marks or scratches on it but on close examination there were lots. I took photos of them and walked back into the terminal. The girl on the desk had a quick roll of the eyes when she saw me return, they obviously know there are marks on them and hope they can charge someone for the pleasure. Well its not going to be me or at least not for ones which are already there! After a 300kms drive of the car my opinion has not got any better. I had forgotten that they, like the Qashqai have a CVT gearbox which I dislike with a passion, but the rest of the car was not much better. It’s not particularly comfortable, there are numerous rattles in it, the steering is vague, it feels cheap with acres of hard black plastic and the switch gear feels and looks dated. On the plus side, it’s a nice blue colour and over the 300kms it has averaged a very respectable 6.2 Litres per 100 kms so is not bad on fuel. We will just have to wait and see how it goes!!
The Airbnb apartment we have rented for 2 nights in Oamaru is very comfortable, has lovely views of the sea and looks perfectly placed for us to start our exploration of New Zealand.