Here we go. Blog day one… With no photos.

If I can believe my smartwatch, I walked 21182 steps over 15 kilometres today.

Most Saturdays I walk to Kuranui Bay and then on the way back I stop at D.C.’s tōtara tree to give it a weed. I attempted it yesterday, but it was raining, so I apologised to it, and Chris’ pōhutukawa, and returned home… Drenched, but in full sun.

So, as the sun was shining this morning, I walked up the steps to The WWI Monument. On the way up, I could hear this sound that is often heard in the town, but no one really seemed to know what it was. I thought it was a conche shell, but I’ve never managed to track down its source. Until today. I (almost) crawled up the last steps to the top, and found a guy with his ratty van, builders crack, and three conch shells. He admitted that he travels around the Coromandel Peninsula, playing his conches wherever he stops. After thanking him for clearing up that mystery, I circled the Monument and then walked down the road, along Queen Street/Tararu Road to Kuranui Bay, back along the waterfront track and to the dog park. I gave both trees a good weeding, in the hopes that it’ll keep the kikuyu at bay until I get back this time next month. If anyone’s wandering past and fancies a spot of weeding, I won’t complain.

When home I tried to decide what order to do everything. I wanted to have a shower, and wash the towel used so it wouldn’t be hanging around damp, so I needed to give that plenty of time to dry. I wanted to have my breakfast, so I could get the dishes washed and the tea towel in the wash. Everything seemed to be dependent on everything else. In the end I air dried the dishes in the sun on the kitchen bench and washed everything, with it drying in good time in the carport. (I do like my “new” carport. It’s almost like a conservatory.)

I even found time to change my sheets so they’ll be cool and fresh when I next use them. I washed the pillowcases, but the sheets will have to wait until next year to be cleaned.

When I bought my new camera in September, I bought an extra battery. Important for Rangitoto, but also very handy in other situations. Do you think I can find battery two? I looked where it should be. I looked where it could be. I looked where I doubted it would be. And I looked where there was absolutely no way it would be…

I’m going to have to go to Photo Warehouse and buy a new one tomorrow. But, at least I don’t have to buy a charger for my smart watch and one for my laptop. I remembered that I didn’t have them last night. If only all these things had the same charging system.

I took the food that’s going to spoil around to Janice’s along with my food scraps for disposal on Thursday. But I forgot the eggs in the back of the fridge. At least they’re in nice little airtight packages and won’t be walking out the fridge to meet me when I get back. Which may have happened with the yoghurt that I nearly forgot to take over.

Janice kindly picked me up at 2.00pm and took me to the Thames War Memorial Hall / Civic Centre to catch the bus. I told Rocky – the only dog that I’ve got any time for – that he was to look after his mum, and that included not getting sick or injuring himself so that she wouldn’t have to worry over him.

I was at the head of the queue and the driver commented that he hadn’t seen me on the bus for a while. I said that my mother had died and I hadn’t really felt like going anywhere. He replied that he remembered her and that we’d always sat next to each other. (At least we’d tried to. It wasn’t always possible when the bus was already full with people coming from Tauranga.)

Aside from being hot because we were driving straight towards the sun across the Hauraki Plains (I’d managed to score a front seat), and my tablet refusing to play any Christmas songs or any other song other than on repeat, it was a good trip. Every now and then I’d get a text from Pen saying where she was on her journey from Whakatane.

Getting to Auckland, I had my first drama. I got to Auckland City Hotel okay, checked in okay, found my room okay…

We had a double bed when I’d booked a standard twin.

I got on the phone to a very apologetic receptionist… Who shifted us from room 807 to room 308. There will be at least one night when we’re going to have to share a double, (on our last night in Auckland. I did ask that we be considered for a twin if one comes available), but we don’t want to have to share a bed any more than necessary.

Once that was sorted, and knowing that Pen was still on the road, I went searching for a Chemist Warehouse. I object to them as a matter of principle, being a foreign chain that’s driving out long established local pharmacies, but they’re the only place that I’ve found that sells travel hairbrushes. So, I set my timer to tell me when to head back to the bus terminal to meet Pen, before going hunting for the one at 155 Queen Street. I’d found 136 Queen Street, but no Chemist Warehouse, when my watch vibrated that it was time to head back. It turned out that I’d overshot 155 Queen Street… Not that it mattered. The only evidence of the Chemist Warehouse was an overhead sign saying it was at the end of a crooked arrow.

I gave up and headed back to the SkyCity InterCity bus terminal.

It turned out that I could have taken my time to find it, as Pen’s bus was running about ½ hour late. Something she and the rest of her bus knew, but not the rest of the InterCity network. The online tracking was saying it was on time, and when I checked at the office, they said they hadn’t had any notification of any delays and that the tracking wasn’t working for them.

I sat and played games on my phone until the bus arrived. Or buses, as there were two turning up at the same time. Pen was in the second one.

We went back to the hotel, and had a discussion about where we were going to go for some tea. We’d sort of said that, as we’re going to have freeze dried roast chicken for Christmas dinner, we’d try and get the real deal now. The best, closest restaurant I could find that served this, for a reasonable price (and with good reviews) was a forty-minute walk away. I know where it is, but, as it was getting late, we weren’t sure that the return journey was a good idea.

So, we ended up walking just as far to find a place to eat. We ended up, having been all the way down to the bottom of Queen Street, to check out the “new” Commercial Bay, eating at Tony’s Steak House just around the corner. We shared a deep fried camembert, and sticky pork ribs with “fries” and asparagus. The camembert was an entrée and the single dish of ribs was enough for two. I found it all a little too sweet and the ribs had too much gristle (and bone), but the sauce was tasty and I enjoyed the asparagus. For my drink, I had a non-alcoholic eggnog ($18 *ouch). I’ve never tried eggnog before and I enjoyed it – even though I’m not that much of a fan of nutmeg.

When we’d finished our meal and paid half each ($40) we went to Starbucks (stopping off to look at Smith and Caughey’s Christmas window. Must get photos) for a hot chocolate for Pen and a gingerbread frappe for me. It had coffee in it, so that’s going to be another sleepless night.) I paid for this, as it made up for my eggnog being dearer than Pen’s Pink Panther.

And then we retired to our single beds, and worked on our recordings of our days.