wgn to akl

Number one on my list of Things You Should Definitely Not Take On A Roadtrip: a sinus infection. Thanks in part to the airline ventilation system, though, I think I’m coming down with one. Based on approximately 54 historical data points (one in spring, one in fall, every year. yaaay.), it should last about 2 weeks, or through the end of the road trip and on into the beginning of the Australian adventure. Sigh.

Anyway, we left Wellington at 5:10 this morning to miss weekend traffic. As planned, I set my alarm for 5 am, and slept in my clothes so I’d just have to brush my teeth, put in my contacts, and grab the overnight bag and food from the kitchen on my way out the door – everything else went in Jamie’s car last night. Unfortunately, though, I was in a bit of a fog yesterday from lack of sleep, jetlag, and killer allergies, so I forgot I’d been subtracting an hour off the time shown on my phone/alarm clock to account for daylight savings time. I did not change the clock or account for this when setting my alarm. I was ‘lucky,’ though – one of my five roommates was not feeling well from her bar adventures, and was making lots of noise fumbling for her water bottle in the early hours, and 4 am (by my phone-clock) was the last of several times I woke up. I suddenly realized 4 am might really be 5 am, and sent Jamie a sheepish text asking what time it really was and apologizing if it was actually 4 am and he was still trying to sleep. I got the reply back saying it was 5 am, and (foolishly) there wasn’t anything in there about ‘…and you’re an idiot, I’m reconsidering this road trip idea,’ so I headed downstairs to meet him.

The drive was pretty uneventful – about 8 hours to the Onehunga outlet mall outside Auckland, including a couple of stops. We drove up the middle – the Great Desert road by Mount Ruapehu etc. is an intriguing contrast to the lush green farmlands north and south – and saw a bunch of nice rainbows along the way. Rainbows are nearly as common as sheep here, but they haven’t lost their charm for me. Oh – and neither have little lambs, I’d almost forgotten how absolutely adorable they are. Sheep = kind of ugly, though. At least close up.

Outlet shopping was semi-successful: I did not find the right kind of Canterbury polo shirt I am hunting down for Charles, but I did find things for me. Oops. I need to remember I am backpacking, and already carrying at least one too many backpacks.