Emmaisms (2nd Feb)

Well today can only be described a series of Emmaisms, thats the new term I have for the bizarre situations I seem to get myself into through, obviously, no fault of my own! I’ve decided to give it a term because I just know there’s gonna be many more to come.

The morning started off with the discovery that last night I shared a room with 5 guys and 1 girl. I guessed it was predominantly men, small giveaways you know, but when I went to bed it was just me and 1 other guy. I got up and left around 9 and they were all still sleeping, maybe they’re on the party all night sleep all day tour of NZ!

So I set off for my journey north, I had booked a bed at Paihia and when I spoke to the owner on the phone she told me that there was only a twin room left and that I could have it on a per person rate, normally you have to pay for the entire room, and if someone else wanted a bed I would share. With the days events that took place this thought was what kept me going, that potentially I would have a room to myself! Mmmm!! Again, why do things never turn out the way you want them to?

It was nice to get away from the city to be honest; I’m really not a city girl. But it is a bit of a challenge driving, map reading (of course while still driving) and sightseeing (again, of course while still driving!). But that’s part of the fun of it all! In my little car there’s evidence of where the last hirer had rented a sat nav, but that just spoils the excitement of discovering places doesn’t it??

So I had the day to drive from Auckland to The Bay of Islands, now by my calculations this should take about 3 – 4 hours driving straight there. Well I wanted to see some of the sights so reckoned on it taking a bit longer, but 8 hours longer??? That I hadn’t bargained for.

Somehow I ended up down a very long one way street, when I say very long, it was around 50 miles and when I say street, what I really mean is a beautiful winding coastal drive, so it did have its up sides!! As the road was heading for the sea I kept thinking that of course it was gonna make its way around and along the coast, but oh no, way too easy! It was just a dead end, a very pretty dead end, but a dead end all the same! I had arrived at Coast beach. I pulled over and was fortunate in finding the only person who I could stop to ask for directions. The guy I stopped had been cleaning and renovating the house I had stopped at and was shortly heading back to the main town, he then offered for me to follow him and his wife back to his place where I could then call the hostel I had booked in and he would then send me on the RIGHT way. Him and his wife were so friendly and so helpful and didn’t question too many times how I had managed to find myself so far off the track (!). It was at this point that I vowed to buy myself a decent road map of New Zealand seeing as I’m driving around it. J

Just prior to meeting my helpers I had noticed that the fuel gauge in the car was slowly creeping down but in usual Emma style I didn’t worry too much about it! As always I thought there would be a fuel station out there somewhere, although again in true Emma style, I had no idea what fuel the car actually took! By the time I had followed the couple back to Whangarei I had even less fuel (!) but of course couldn’t stop and fill up while I was following them and they were being so kind.

I called the hostel to say I would be a bit later than anticipated but no answer, lets hope someone’s there when I get there huh? Once my friendly couple had sent me on my way the fuel was even lower and I was racing against the clock and a nights accommodation and every petrol station I came across was closed! This can never be good thing. I had visions of the last time this had happened, it was Cyprus and just 1 month ago (!) I was with Jeff and we were lucky in the end but I said then that I would never get into a similar situation again! Perhaps this time I’ll learn huh Jeff?? Mmm or perhaps not!

After my last big trip away and the blog I wrote then my brother commented on the amount of exclamation marks I used, but Pete, on my travels there just seems to be so many situations that necessitate them! J

I finally arrive at the Pickled Parrot at 9.30pm, there was a bit of a party atmosphere going on but no one to give me a bed for the night, a couple of people helped me out in finding the owner and I finally got sorted, showered and bedded by 11pm in a dorm for 6!!