Lung Pie

Confusion rained within an hour of our departing Whitianga today. We had already been forced to park round the back the previous night owing to the car parking spaces being colonised by oversized SUVs, making it impossible to park our oversized SUV. As soon as I was up, dressed, coffeed and minded to I moved the car round into the now emptied car parking spaces. Where do these folks all go at the scrake of dawn? I could sworn I had set an alarm the previous night but was up without any sign of it alarming. Ah well. We packed up the car, handed in our key. I had one last admiring look at the avocado tree, resplendent in its pendulous bounty. I still had my own which I had packed away carefully.

While we plotted our course back to Auckland we noticed that the staff were already in our room cleaning. Almost indecent haste. It was then that we remembered having left some leftovers in the fridge from Blue Ginger a number of days previously. One wheel spin later we avoided any judgement and played a game of chicken with someone from the Jehovah’s Witness Church next door (remember them) who was looking to turn around on our laneway. Feck that church boy. He duly reversed back 100 yards and all was good with the world.

Back to the confusion that rained that I started this piece with. Admittedly drizzled is perhaps a better word, arose slowly as we became aware of a discrepancy between our anticipated arrival time and what the time actually was. Or rather between Mrs Verno’s timepiece and every other timepiece. Our time zone frazzled brains were at their dullest until we realised that unlike the UK, the antipodes had one of their biannual time adjustments on this very Easter Sunday. To add to the confusion while we sprang forward, here because we were moving into autumn, we were falling back. Got it. Well it took us at least 20 miles to work this out. And it was Mrs Verno’s analogue time piece that settled the issue for us.

I won’t repeat what I have said previously but the road into the Coramandel Peninsula is a brutal assemblage of hairpins and white knuckle rides. Brutal, brutal, brutal. When you think it’s over another hill climb starts, with the inevitable brutal hill descent to follow. When the advisory signage states 25 KPH coming into a turn you know it’s going to be……… yes, brutal.

During one period between hellscapes there was signage for a farmers’ market. I off-handedly suggested we go in. Mrs Verno retorted at the speed of light that we could set up a stall and try and sell my avocado. I admired the humour but was appalled at the suggestion. Never. Not until it turned purple and was ready to eat.

We stopped at a bakery just shy of the motorway. We had stopped there on the way out and I had sampled a great sausage roll. This time my frazzled nerves needed something a bit more primordial. I beheld a wondrous range of pies. I have noted previously that pies are a thing out here in the antipodes. The Belvedere in Sydney offered a pie of the day and a pint for $30. Here I settled on something I had not sampled in years. A steak and kidney pie. As Mrs Verno stifled a retch I tore into it with a relish not seen before the early 80s and certainly before mad cow disease. It was lovely. Mrs Verno refused to partake and reflected that Philip had once declared when presented with such a dish that he did not like lung pie. I like lung pie.

We then continued our journey and managed to make it into Auckland without any mishaps but were then thwarted by roadworks that Mr Google seemed to have missed. After circling the city centre for a while we managed to arrive at our hotel and drop off our luggage. The lady in the hotel remembered us and stored our luggage while we set off to find a petrol station to fill up before returning the Verno mobile. Only then did we realise the impact of the kerfuffle in the Middle East on petrol prices. It was so bad that I had to dispatch my financier to pay the bill. We then quickly found our way to the AVIS care hire place and deposited the car in the approved spot. I have noted previously mentioned this previously but with Trailfinders there was no excess on any damage incurred so we could have returned the car with its arse end hanging off. We didn’t but it was still a relief to have our deposit returned.

We walked back to the hotel and what a lovely day it was in Auckland. An afternoon beer and a slow unpacking of my avocado and we ventured as far as the ground floor for fancy steak and chips. Mrs Verno is currently having a MudHouse while watching Virgin River while I entertain the masses. Plans are finalised for the morrow and yet another moving day is complete.