28 December 2024
Even though we had the ceiling fan turning, I found it too hot during the night. Pen, conversely, found it too cold. If we have a similar arrangement later, we’re going to swap beds.
We took our time getting ready, having a shower (two in two days!), having breakfast (blueberry bagel and lemon Greek yoghurt), making sure everything was packed, and then finding other things that needed to be packed and we weren’t sure were going to fit into the bags.
At 10.00 am we were finally ready to vacate our room, so we went downstairs, asked for a twin bedroom next time, (Auckland City Hotel only had doubles available when I booked, so I asked if we could get a twin if it came available, so it wouldn’t hurt to ask again.) We then went out, with our first stop being LyLo Auckland.
Back in January, when I was originally deciding where to stay in Auckland, because the bus got in after the ferry for Rangitoto left, I found a place that was cheaper than most hotels. That’s because you slept in “pods”. The idea intrigued me and the pricing was good, but I was unsure if I would be comfortable staying in such a place. So, with Pen for support, we went hunting for it.
At first, we managed to overshoot the street and had to walk back down again to the road that runs at right angles to Hobson Street where the Auckland City Hotel is. (And more or less over the road from their parking area, which I hadn’t even known existed.) We asked one guy who was manning the information counter if it would be possible to see one of the rooms, and he admitted that he was information about things to do in Auckland, not LyLo per se, and told us who to speak to.
The woman who assisted us was very helpful. She found which rooms were available and took us to see them. One is a standard room with attached facilities, which was all you needed. The second was a standard room, but with shared facilities. (Both king sized beds)
The pods were different, but still looked comfortable. You slept in a room with up to ten others, but in a “pod” that was made up of a king sized bed and plenty of room to sit up and get changed in. You also got a locker to put your bags in. It actually looks quite fun and both Pen and I were keen to try them. There’s a Lylo in Queenstown, where we were already booked in to a six-room female only dorm, and we figured that trying the Lylo pods at least this means we wouldn’t have light in our eyes when the concert goers come back after the summer concert.
So, I’ve done a bit of surfing, and it turned out that not only does Lylo Queenstown have two spare pods in the female only room, their building is something like three minutes and 180 metres from the InterCity bus stop; as opposed to the 17 minute, 1.2 kilometre walk we would have had to have done to Haka House. Upshot? We’re now booked in to Lylo Queenstown for two nights.
Anyway, all that planning was in the future. Once we’d had a good look around Lylo Auckland, we went down to Smith and Caughey’s and I got more photos of their Christmas window display.
After that, we continued down to the waterfront and had an ice cream Sunday each at Movenpick. (Mint chocolate and hokey pokey in my case.) Then we walked the 100 metres on to the New Zealand Maritime Museum.
We spent a good few hours moseying around here, checking out such interesting titbits as early Polynesian seafarers, Sir Peter Blake’s life and legacy, America’s Cups successes and failures – and other sailing trophies, and immigrants’ experiences arriving by sea.
Spirit of New Zealand training ship
Dioramas of Auckland’s port then and now
Team New Zealand’s winning America’s Cup yacht. The keel bulb was a replica as the genuine article would have been too heavy to be on display.
Replica America’s Cup made out of plastic found on the sea shore
No. Not modern sleeping pods. Sailing ship sleeping berths.
It was about 3.00pm by the time we decided that we were getting hungry, so we went to Denny’s and I had a Veggie Skillet and an apple juice, which was nice enough.
Back to the Auckland City Hotel where we collected our bags and sat in their lounge for a while – me trying to get my tablet to free up some space. I keep on deleting stuff and it still says its just on full. Very frustrating.
6.30, after a JIC toilet stop, we headed to the InterCity Bus Terminal. That was after I realised that I couldn’t find my sunglasses anywhere. I had a look where they should be… I had a look where they could be… etc. I even told reception that if someone handed in sunglasses with pink frames they were mine. And I could have done with them as we headed out of town.
We were there early enough that we were able to score a front seat, which I was pleased about. We already had a fighting chance, as we’d paid the extra for the GOLD standard of transportation. That was: “InterCity GOLD buses offer a limited number of soft leather reclining chairs, complete with individual USB charging ports and free WiFi. Our premium InterCity GOLD seats provide plenty of room to stretch your legs. And the best thing is, they don’t cost a lot more than the regular fare! Simply lie back and relax – plug in your USB, log on to the WiFi, and watch the world glide by. Very nice.”
I’m not sure that “Very nice” is the adjective I’d use to describe it after 11.5 hours of using it. Still, it had to be better than what everyone else had to put up with. During one stop, I saw one guy who’d hung his hoodie over his face to keep the light out. It wasn’t too bad at the beginning, except that we were driving into the sun and I could have done with my sunglasses. Our seats’ backs, being the front ones, reclined a couple of degrees, but didn’t have the raised footrests of the seats behind. So I ended up, initially, resting my feet on my camera bag, which was lying flat on the floor, and then after the first of three toilet stops, I stood it up, curled up, and rested my feet on it, where it was pretty close to being the right height. Whilst still wearing the lap-belt safety restraint.
Another irritant was the lady over the aisle in the single seat. (Double our side of the GOLD seats, single the other.) I think she’d been upgraded as she was the friend of a friend of the driver, which at first she was thrilled about. By the end of the journey she was over it. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that she was an inveterate mobile phone user. Not only was she texting, which made audible beeps whenever a message came in, she was always on the phone and the whole bus knew about how: “I want that blanket back, bro… It cost me $50, bro… I don’t care what she thinks, bro, I want it back. Bro, they wanted someone to come with me on the bus to look after me, bro… You don’t hit a woman, bro, so I was out of there… Bro.”
This last bit of information we all gleaned, seemed to be the focus of her discussions.. With every member of her family. Putting two and two together, she and her other half had been staying with his relatives, and someone had hit her, and she’d got out of there. “I’m cancelling your ticket, bro… Your ticket’s cancelled, bro… When you catch the bus tomorrow, you want to see if the driver knows Renee as he’ll upgrade you and this is primo, bro.”
Pen has got an inflatable footstool that is clever in its construction in that it’s a decent size and has got three different heights you can inflate it to…
The woman adjacent to us: “You want to see these awesome inflatable footstools the old couple next to me have got, bro.”
Old couple!?
We’re still cracking up over that one.
It was a long trip for all concerned. As you can see by the schedule.
STOP LOCATION SCHEDULED
Auckland – Central 7:00 pm
Manukau City (Auckland) 7:19 pm
Bombay (Auckland) 7:49 pm
Huntly 8:19 pm
Hamilton – Central 8:49 pm
Cambridge 9:19 pm
Tirau * 9:45 pm
Rotorua 11:09 pm
Taupo 12:09 am
Waitahanui 12:19 am
Turangi 12:54 am
Waiouru 1:44 am
Taihape 2:04 am
Bulls * 3:05 am
Sanson 3:44 am
Palmerston North 4:04 am
Massey University (Palmerston Nth) 4:14 am
Shannon 4:39 am
Levin 4:54 am
Otaki 5:14 am
Waikanae (Wellington) 5:24 am
Paraparaumu (Wellington) 5:34 am
Porirua (Wellington) 6:04 am
Johnsonville (Wellington) 6:14 am
Wellington – Central 6:30 am
* Tirau and Bulls were both half hour breaks for a snack and a JIC (Just in Case) toilet stop.
This was originally in neat columns, but that didn’t import too well.
The first few hours weren’t too bad. It was by the time we’d 11.00 pm and Rotorua that I, and my stomach, had had enough. Every 2.5 hours or so we’d stop just for a toilet break, and I’d get out just for fresh air. But by Waiouru it had got too much for me. I wanted to get out, but I didn’t want to worry Pen, but I also needed her to stop fussing about with her footstool and getting everything sorted so I could get out. So I made my apologies and get out to get some deep breaths.
That didn’t really work.
There was a queue for the toilets, so I waited outside…
I’m okay…
No, I’m not…
Yes, I am…
No, I’m…
Botheration.
I didn’t know what else to do, except stand on the forecourt, making sure no one put their foot in it, and keeping an eye on the toilet queue as people went into the toilet, others left, and I’d think that, finally, I could go in for a wash, and someone else would turn up.
Eventually, I was able to duck in and wash my hands and face. I then went and apologised to the forecourt attendant, and asked if they had anything ginger I could buy for nausea. They didn’t. The bus driver suggested a vanilla Up and Go, but they only had chocolate. He asked if there was anything he could do, and I (later on when I thought of it) considered asking if he had a magic want to send me straight to Wellington. Instead, I bought some peppermints and spent the rest of the trip sitting bolt upright in my seat to limit the side on motion. On one toilet stop, after some fresh air (getting away from the smokers and vapers), I decided that a JIC wouldn’t hurt. As it was supposed to be a quick stop and I was the last one in the ladies, I heard him say. “Is there anyone in there?” Another lady said there was and I said: “Yes. The lady who was sick.”
It’s a shame it was night, as the skies were mostly clear and there would have been some stunning views in the daytime. Especially of the Central Plateau. It definitely felt very alpine when I got out at Waiouru.
I’d bought myself a new personalised drink bottle, but the stopper was failing and when my camera bag fell over the bottle leaked. But it was either bend down to sought that out or keep looking straight ahead…
I kept looking straight ahead. Fortunately, it was only my torch lanyard that got wet.
And talking things in my bag. At one point I discovered that the divider between the camera section and the other items section had dropped and my sunglasses had slipped through the gap. So they were found. Then Pen lost her water bottle. Which eventually turned up when some bloke from the back of the bus brought it up to her.
I did manage to nod off a few times. Either just before we arrived at the next stop, which would wake me up; or else just before my head dropped and also woke me up.
So, needless to say, both Pen and I were absolutely Toyota’d by the time we got to Wellington. Pen got our bags, and then I asked her to stay with them as I sought out the driver who’d finished unloading the bags – just to say thank you to him. He commented that I was only the second person… “third” he added when Pen said thank you, to say thank you the entire trip. It’s a bit sad when he’s had the job of staying awake all night to keep us safe. (He was the only driver.)
And so, as it’s now Sunday 29th at 6.30am, I’ll switch to a new blog entry.
After I’ve got some sleep.
Steps = 13,243
Kilometres = 9.1 (walking, not bussing)
Purupuss's Purrings 