27 December 2024

Today was slightly windy.

Slightly, as in the forecast was for 39 km/h sou’sou’westerly winds. I’d known that this was possible since Tuesday and had been concerned. You see, Fullers 360 Ferries don’t like landing at Rangitoto Wharf’s all weather wharf in anything other than a light zephyr. If the winds were too strong and coming from the wrong direction, then the ferry would bypass Rangi’ Wharf and head to Islington Bay. A walk of about 1.45 hours. With all our gear.

Just as well we’d left Pen’s suitcase at the hotel. Mine I was using rather than a more convenient larger one, because it could convert to a backpack in this exact scenario.

But would I need to do that?

And how would I find out?

Fullers has an app that you can sign up to, and it automatically sends you alerts if there are any changes to the ferry schedules. Things like the Waiheke Ferry’s run aground so the 10:15 sailing can’t go ahead, or the Harbour Bridge has collapsed blocking the Birkenhead ferry run – that sort of thing. (Actually, I don’t know if the Fullers app would comment on the destruction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, as the Birkenhead sailing comes under the auspices of Auckland Transport, which uses Fullers 360 Ferries.)

As I’ve signed up to the Fullers app, every so often my phone beeps at work to tell me that a cruise ship has taken up more room than it should and Rangitoto Island sailings are operating out of Pier 4 rather than Pier 14. Or that, due to the weather, the ferries will be sailing out of Islington Bay rather than Rangitoto Wharf. (Now that I’ve got a smart watch, I only need to glance at it when I get those notifications at work, rather than picked up my phone and firing up the display.) BUT, that app only works if you’re connected to the Internet, and I only had limited data on my phone. I had every intention of firing it up and seeing if I’d got a message from Fullers, but what if I timed it wrong and missed it?

I texted Shirley. She’s also a long term Rangitotoite, and has the app. Plus, she uses her mobile to keep in contact with her family and always has it with her and connected to the Internet. And so I asked her to let me know if Fullers let her know that they were going to Issy Bay rather than Rangi Wharf.

Almost instantly I had a reply from her saying that she’d just had a message from Fullers to say that, yes, all ferries were going into Islington Bay.

Bother.

Okay, we’d already psyched ourselves up for this. We’d start walking at 10.00 am at the latest, which would give us 2.75 hours to walk to Islington Bay. Fortunately, because of the wind, it wasn’t hot or muggy, so it wasn’t too bad.

And then we had to wait for the boat to arrive.

Remember how the other week I just couldn’t find my camera battery. I’m not sure if I’ve said, but when I was looking for it, I was looking for a small black box, about the size of a matchbox, with a removable orangey/yellow cover on one side – just like the spare batteries for my old camera. The new battery that I bought a couple of days ago, turns out to be a small black box, about the size of a matchbox, with a removable clear/white plastic cap. As I was looking for the orangey/yellow I’ll probably find the clear/white plastic cap looking at me when I get home.

Anyway, I’d recently bought some replacement Seaband anti-nausea wristbands – mainly for car (bus) travel sickness. (Pink, of course.) As I never have any problems travelling between Auckland and Rangitoto I hadn’t worn them on the way out. But, as there were a lot of white horses galloping, I figured there was a chance that I would need them on the way home.

Do you think I could find them?

I searched where they should be. I searched where they could be. I searched where they were unlikely to be. I searched where they shouldn’t be.

Nope.

In the end, Pen gave me one of hers to wear on my left wrist, as she said that Anaesthesiologists put them on patients’ left wrists to help negate the effects of anaesthetics when they wake up after operations. I’ve always believed that Seabands need to be on both wrists, but I was willing to give it a go. Mind you it wasn’t that long a trip between Rangitoto and Auckland…

That’s once we were able to get moving.

The ferry was supposed to leave at 12.45. We didn’t see it chugging into the bay until 1.08 pm and didn’t leave until 1:21. According to the skipper, once we were on board, that was how bad the conditions were. He hoped to make up time on the return journey. I hoped to get a photo of the bach as we went past and got the camera out, but the sailing was that rough I doubted that I’d be able to hold the camera still. Pen did take her camera to the stern of the boat, but she reckoned it got covered in sea spray salt.

We’d arranged to meet up with our mutual Thunderbirds friend Ali Wallis (Pen had Tiki Toured around Northland with her an her family the last time she was here) to have lunch and a chat, so I kept texting her to let her know how things were going: We haven’t left the island yet. And haven’t even seen the ferry. Hope this skipper knows we’re at Islington Bay, not Rangitoto Wharf.

I texted her when we were leaving the drop off at Devonport, and again when we were in the parking area by Shed 10, by which point she was driving along Quay Street and about to turn in. It was a very quick greeting and then she took us back to her office in Shortland Street. (No, she doesn’t work in a hospital. She’s a Senior Instructor in law.)

As we’d hoped to get a roast for a pre-freeze-dried-food-Christmas-dinner and failed, Ali bought us some roast for lunch. So, we all sat around a table at her office and tucked into roast lamb, beef, and chicken. Plus kūmara, carrots, peas, and potato. (My first potato was cooked perfectly, so I had to have seconds.) This was washed down with juice and we had strawberries, blueberries, and some raspberry slice for dessert. We hadn’t eaten so good in days!

Once we’d finished eating and chatting, Ali took us back to the Auckland City Hotel and we said our goodbyes, before checking in.

First point of order? A shower! And recharge our gizmos. And get our clothes together for a wash – $4 for the washing machine, $4 for the dryer.

While our clothes were still cycling away, we went out to buy something light for dinner. I got a “pork meat floss bun”, whatever that is, from a shop called Maggie Bakery, which is over the road from the Auckland City Hotel. But, whatever it was, it was surprisingly light and tasty. They also had very decadent slices of cake, so we got a Magnum caramel chocolate (?). I also bought a blueberry bagel for breakfast. We came back to the hotel, decided that we needed something to drink, and went out again. I object to buying water in a plastic bottle, but I’m also not a fan of filling my water bottle up from the bathroom sink, so I got an apple flavoured “Pump”. Which tasted apple cider vinegary.

From Wikipedia: Meat floss, also known as pork or yuk sung is a dried meat product with a light and fluffy texture similar to coarse cotton, originating from China.

Following that, we settled down, did a bit of relaxing at our relative computers, and uploaded our blogs.

Tomorrow night we’re getting the night bus between Auckland and Wellington, so don’t be surprised if you don’t get a blog entry. Typing when moving is not good for my stomach, so I don’t think I’ll be making use of the onboard WiFi.

I turned my smart watch back on this morning and it recorded that I took 18,310 steps over 4 kilometres. (Yes, WordPress, that is how you spell kilometres.)