Day 1 – All aboard the Aratere

 

We spent much of the day cleaning the flat and packing our bags.  Taking a car means there is a lot of room to take things that you might otherwise leave behind if just travelling with bags. 

 

Finally, I got the bikes onto the back of the car.  I have tried to avoid the occupation of the mandate protesters at Parliament but there was no real option but to go past it.  Since  I last went that way the occupation seems to have thinned a bit. 

 

Being loaded onto the Aratere was  a dream.  While we had to wait a bit for our turn to board the ship, when our turn arrived it was efficient - so much easier than getting on the Kaitaki.  Once on board we found a place to sit that was comfortable and had a good view.  There weren’t many travellers and I suspect most came on board with their cars and utes. 

 

The trip across was very quick - we left 15 minutes early and arrived half an hour early much to our surprise.  I do like that particular ship to travel on.  The only gripe that I had was one where people talk on their phones in speaker mode which means you end up hearing a whole conversation which tends be very loud.   We had one such couple behind us in the boat.  I think most of that side of the ship heard about the daughter’s troubles.

 

Our AirBnB was in Waikawa and very close to where I grew up.  One of the surprises for me was what had happened to my parents’ property.  The land had been subdivided although the old home was still there but on a much reduced section.   It was  awful  with high wooden fences everywhere and of course large houses on handkerchief sized sections.   

 

And so ends day one.