I’ll tell you what it means

You last saw us settling down for the night in Auckland. This morning I remembered to change the default area on my watch to reflect my current whereabouts. I know. I can hear the poor hims from half-way around the world. This is what I saw and thought it would be good for all of you to share the misery of trying to keep up with where I am.

We had more than a full day yesterday as evidenced by the 10 hour sleep we both had. Out like lights. Now they love their sliding doors out here in the antipodes (our AirBnB had one also). This one too was into the bathroom. Upon wakening I required the bathroom but managed to get stuck, unable to find the secret latch that would release the door and free me. As Mrs Verno had been still asleep I tried to be very quiet. I know. Mrs Verno meanwhile woke up and I kid you not had a genuine “Where’s Verno?” moment. Bless her, she did her best to look pleased when I eventually released myself from tiled and wonderfully plumbed prison.

After putting our jammies back in the cases we were ready to tackle the challenge ahead. That was to navigate central Auckland by foot.The taximen are robbing feckers here unlike Singapore and Sydney. So they were not getting another penny from whoever was paying for all this.

So walking it was. 20 minutes later we found ourselves in possession of Mitsibishi Outlander. A big bugger. As we familiarised ourselves with the controls we watched amusedly an elderly lady who had been before us in the queue and who had been given the same guidance as us on how to leave the facility, happily drive down the entrance ramp. To my credit I did try to stop her but to no avail. You will be pleased to hear that she reaped up the same ramp a few minutes later and then exited the correct way. We left it a few minutes for her to clear the local streets.

It was then our turn and we sat navved our way back to the hotel to pick up our cases. Mrs Verno volunteered to get them and leave me in charge of the vehicle in a zone whose parking credentials were quite unclear. Out she trotted accompanied by one of the staff. Mrs Verno later reflected that the staff member had enquired as to our next stop having previously discussed our itinerary to date with us. Mrs Verno further reflected that she had quite honestly replied that she did not know and to that the staff backed slowly away and probably weighed up whether to phone the police or not. A case of human trafficking maybe? Anyway we made it out of the city. We made it out of the city in very good order and then found ourselves driving over the Coromandel Range as we headed up the self named peninsula. I have driven in Cork and Kerry. I have driven in Switzerland. I have driven in the Rockies. These were the bendiest, windiest, twistiest, serpentine, convoluted and sinuous roads I have had the pleasure of driving. WE were up a mountain, down it and so on. Mrs Verno declined the opportunity to enjoy this experience. The scenery was quite spectacular but we have no evidence of that yet. Hopefully tomorrow. We did spot a lot of roadside beehives so there’s a thing.

We duly arrived at the Aotearoa Lodge on the outskirts of Whitianga. For those of you hungry for knowledge, Aotearoa is Māori for New Zealand and appears all over the place. Think “John Dory’s” and you’ve got it.

This was more like a chilled out spot in the country that would suit us rightly after our high intensity fun having to date. And right beside a Jehovah’s Witnesses Church. Will need to keep Mrs Verno under wraps later when she ‘s having her West Coast Cooler in case things get a bit lazy.

We had a little orientation when we had a receptionist show us where the laundry was. I know. I will not mention it again. Mrs Verno appeared content. Our host took the opportunity to point out some of the fruit trees that were in the garden in front of our accommodation. I thought I was seeing things when he pointed out an avocado tree. All intact too. I have to say this was a thing of schoolboy humour beauty. See below. Enough said. Our host pulled one off. And presented it me. I felt so proud. He did say it might take a few weeks to ripen. But patience is a virtue. There were also orange, lemons, mandarins and so on but they lack the inherent humour of a well developed avocado. Mrs Verno was told what avocado means and reprimanded me for my uncharacteristic lack of couth. I now stand redeemed as a man of great knowledge and couth.

We went for a drive to familiarise ourselves with the area and purchase some provisions. We then checked out a little Asian Fusion place and then settled back at base camp where Mrs Verno is reading, I am writing this and mosquitoes are having a fine old time sampling my blood. Time for Bushmans’s Insect Repellant again. Oh the suffering goes on.