I left home bright and early Friday morning - my first hop was just up the road on a #8 bus, but every journey has to start somewhere.
I thought I had most of my prep done - bag was largely packed - but somehow I was up very late Thursday finalising everything. I didn’t want to leave any perishables behind, so that included eating the two oranges I had left, a half bag of popcorn, a litre of ice cream and drinking the most expensive bottle of beer I’ve had in a while - its a collab between 8 Wired and Small Gods called Desperate Glory, a Belgian sour brown ale aged for a year in bourbon barrels and then blended with Chinese Keemun tea. Not a beer to drink in a hurry, so I sipped away at it as I enjoyed the last episode of Shogun (a bit anti-climactic after the trauma at the end of #9.
The second stage of the journey was the bus to Queenstown - they have made a big improvement on the service since I was last on it, as they’ve dropped the stop at the place with terrible coffee and now stop outside the best place on the route - The Store in Roxburgh.
The wheels came off a bit in Queenstown - always a risk when flying Jetstar, although I think I heard Air New Zealand was late as well. Instead of getting into Auckland at 6:40, it was a bit after 9 when we touched down. It could have been worse - the morning Jetstar flight was still in the airport when I got there, they had even take all the bags off, and that flight was at least six hours late.
I was too late to collect my rental car as a result - they would have released it to me for a fee, but I didn’t fancy starting a 3 hour drive at 10 at night, so checked in to a hotel near the airport, the Naumi. This is one of the few places I have been forced to play by my #1 travel rule: when staying in a hotel with a bar, have a gin and tonic. Frugal traveler that I am, places I stay tend not to have a bar. The one here was quite pleasant, made more so as they forgot to put the drink on my tab.
Four days later, and I still haven’t got very far - I’m in the Paeroa library - but shit’s about to get real, as I fly out to Guangzhou and on to Shanghai tonight. I grabbed my rental car on Saturday morning and after buying the things I left behind (memory cards) or broke (glasses), headed north to see a brother, stopping in at the Haven at Paparoa for a coffee and again at Dargaville to look at the Northern Wairoa River (I grew up down the road from it, after it had become part of the Kaipara Harbour)..
I don’t know how I found the strength of character to do it, but I resisted the temptation to get up in the dark and help milk 200 cows. He was kind enough to take me to a historic hotel at Kaihu for Sunday lunch.
Since Jetstar had put me back, I didn’t even try making it to my other brother’s on Sunday, but instead popped in to Browns Bay in search of a roast meat place I’ve been wanting to try. They were pretty much sold out, but I was pretty happy with the roast duck I found at (lame name alert) Asian Wok.
I spent Sunday night in a very average airport hotel, then was hosted by my other brother and his family last night, just out of Tauranga. Strangely, I wasn’t invited to go work in the mechanic’s workshop or the holiday park they work at.
The magnitude of what I’m about to do has been getting to me a little. I have been away from home for longer, but on all three occasions, I’ve had a home base. My first trip to England, I was there for two years, but I had a job for most of them and lived in the same house the whole time. The last two times, I was on sabbatical so attached to Universities for a lot of the time I was away, and had dates I needed to be back by. This time round, while I do think I’ll be home in five months, I have no real need to be, and the distances I’ll be going overland are vast, in places which are very foreign to me. And, well, I’m not getting younger or more energetic as the years go by. Still, there’s a lot to look forward to. I recently read Caroline Eden’s Red Sands - which covers the same four ‘Stans I’ll be going to. The book is recent enough that a lot of the cafes she visited are still going strong, so they’re on the list.
Next post, all going well, will be from Shanghai.
Cheers!
Safe travels Barry!