Saturday, February 28: Clear and sunny, and very warm with a couple of clouds
Robert’s (airbnb, $50)
Couldn’t sleep much beyond 8:30, and there was not much to pack this morning, so I got some breakfast (muesli, coffee), then transported my stuff to the door, woke Chinara and said goodbye to her, then marched along the street to the bus stop. Had thought of leaving my stuff there to begin with & collecting it later, but the roads were already chock-a-block and I was glad I had all my stuff with me, and didn’t have to drive back through town.
The bus was rather full as well (one bus later than planned, and it was apparently the planned bus that had failed to turn up). The driver let me leave my suitcase up front. When we were in town I was quickly at the stop in Albert St, and the next bus that I was able to catch was the one bus earlier. So much for Auckland’s public transport timetabling.
Next problem was that I hadn’t noted the stop where the car rental place was and had committed a wrong house number (1006 instead of 3016) to memory. I stayed put in the bus until it was clear that we were in New Lynn and recognised the place just before a stop. Perhaps another couple of improvements that need to be put in place.
At the car rentals I indicated that I would pay in cash and asked for directions to the nearest bank, marched off while the paperwork & photography were being done. Only problem was: If cash withdrawal is “once a day” what does that mean? In any case, no cash was forthcoming, and that could have been because the last withdrawal was on Friday (CET) and it was still Friday (CET); or it was less than 24 hours since the last withdrawal. Went back to the car rental place and said I would try again after 12:00. Made a down payment of the $900 I had in cash, which left me with a fiver.
Went down to the mall and walked around a bit to kill time; tried a couple of other banks after having a pie for $2.5 from the supermarket for lunch, but it was still no go. On the way back to the car rentals I called into BNZ and they said it was a 24 hour interval between withdrawals & offered to give me cash against photo ID, which I declined because of unknown costs.
Tried out all of the possibilities at the car rental place: Credit card in the reader, card number entered by hand, ec card as credit card or cheque card, nothing but nothing worked. The car rental place was willing to let me go on account so to speak and with the car now loaded up, if not fully paid for – a white Mazda Demio, automatic, quite large for a compact car, and the suitcase fits in the boot lying down – I took off in the general direction of south-east, eventually found a few signs to guide me to the motorway and was on it in about 20 minutes. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, except for the great traffic jam that was heading north, with a couple of accidents along the way. Very curvy stretch along the last bit into Raglan itself, and I will have to affix the tracker to the windscreen with sticky tack to prevent it sliding all over the place.
Once here I drove through town and parked in the shade close to the beach, got out and had a walk around. There was a bridge across the river and kids were jumping off. The river is about 100 m wide at this point, so I might get some swimming done. Having checked out town and found a couple of places where I might eat, then tried another bank for all it was worth and the only thing that worked was getting a $20 withdrawal. So this looks like the journey might turn into New Zealand on $20 a day… Really, comdirect, I thought a credit card was something you might use on vacation to pay things or obtain cash with.
I then drove out to check out the surf beaches – the first, Manu Beach, looked a bit rocky, but the one closer to town, Ngarunui Beach, was sandy and well-populated with lifesavers on patrol. I was first parked at the top of the hill with its lovely view across the Tasman, then I couldn’t resist, and drove to the downstairs car park, changed into my togs and spent an hour or so in the surf. The waves were a bit too big for body surfing, but it was fun trying anyway, diving below the waves or trying to stay in place above them. Then I dried off and made my way to Robert’s place.
Robert is an older painter whose pink house is very obvious upon entering town. We chatted for a while and then he wanted to go to the pub to watch the cricket with his mate. I was left to my own devices which for about half an hour was trying to get an internet connection. How this is done was accidentally achieved much later in the evening. First connect to the network, then load any local page which will first be redirected to the login. Do not try anything else.
Went out in the meantime for fish’n’chips for $6.5 at the bakery cum fast food place at the beach end of town. In the course of time, Robert returned, and eventually the internet connection problem was solved. Now let’s see what the bank has to say for itself.
