A very early alarm had us up and doing the last minute prep before the taxi arrived at 5.20 am to take us to the airport.
As we stood in the check-in line Virgin called our names. We found that they had changed us on to an earlier flight (boarding right now) so that we could catch our connection in Melbourne. Our scheduled flight was delayed. This meant a rush through security and to the other end of the terminal (Murphy's law) with Trevor doing the best he could on his troublesome ankle. It also meant sitting in the spare seats in the middle of 3 on opposite sides of the aisle in row 3. More leg room ☺ but the company wasn't so good 😕.
In Melbourne we had to find our way to the T2 international terminal and to our flight gate. We stopped to buy toasted sandwiches (just as well). Our bargain flight did not include meals , so by the time we made it to our digs in Auckland we were hungry.
The warnings of cyclonic winds had us a bit worried, but the flight was calm and smooth, so we were pretty happy about that.
We had along wait at the international airport for our rental car company to fetch us and take us to their office in the industrial zone near the airport. This gave us a quick catch up with Toni Brown and David Poland etc (also waiting). Then a longish wait for the rental company to check us in, for us to pay the unexpected $1000 bond and pick up our little black Honda. It is pretty underpowered, but should get us around OK, and our bags do fit in the hatch at the back (just).
It took us about an hour to make our way to our home for the next 3 nights (airbnb Bronnie and Andie's sunny upstairs flat). There were a number of road closures- some appeared to be due to planned roadworks, and some due to flooding from recent downpours. We took a large number of back streets and wondered if our Garmin navigator actually knew where we were going. We could hear the flood evacuation orders for the Coromandel Peninsula being issued over the radio and felt very sorry for those who had planned a nice relaxed long weekend in that beautiful part of the world. Also happy that we have a roof over our heads and not a tent or swag.
Our location in relation to airport and sprints
We found our place just as expected and it has reliable WiFi which is good and very helpful as we still needed to figure out where the event was for Friday and how we were going to get there! This is certainly not the most organised trip we've been on. We find it really stressful in an unfamiliar place, to try to figure out how long it will take, where we will go etc. They have suggested public transport for today, but we've decided to drive as finding the correct bus, and correct place to get off and then where to go from there is just a bit too much. We still need to register before our runs and expect there to be lots of orienteers in the same boat, which could cause quite a hold up.
It still felt early, but we were tired after a short sleep the night before, so we tipped into bed to rest our tired bodies in preparation for the start of the orienteering tomorrow. (Sprints at Unitec).
Here are a couple of shots of our living space. It has lots of window and the sun is streaming in on my back as I sit here this morning writing this catch up blog.I'm lulled into a sense of hope that maybe it will be a lovely day with no rain by the time we are racing early this afternoon. Certainly seems to be shaping up that way right now.
Trev's twisted ankle is holding up to the walking (still painful) and hasn't got very swollen or bruised, so we are hopeful that he will manage the events ahead OK. Will keep you posted on that after today.
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