* I know. Another old curmudgeon coined that phrase some years ago when he was babbling on about Hobbits but it seems appropriate.
As I, Richard and Uncle Tom told you, I went to Auckland today to pick up The Old Girl's Christmas present.
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| "Aargh! I believe it be down thereaway." |
I bought, after a month or so searching for retailers, wholesalers or importers, off Trade Me , a canoe. A sturdy polycarbonate canoe.
As I knew how hard to get these things are I immediately pressed the 'Buy Now' button and the transaction went ahead. I contacted the sellers who, on the phone and by email seemed reliable and nice and made arrangement to put money into their account and to get to Auckland at a pre-arranged time to collect the merchandise. All went well and the sellers were very nice, retired people who were glad of the quick and smooth transaction.
It is important here to point out that I did not take advantage of these elderly (although I think the woman is younger than me) people and didn't offer them a dollar for the item and then drive up and bully them for the trade. A story about this kind of activity was published on the blogs in this community but it was deleted along with the entire blog. A regular occurance I understand.
Here is an image of the canoe.
I loaded, with the assistance of the woman seller, the canoe into the van* along with the transparent paddles (2) and the transparent rudder (1) and set off for my trip home (back again).
*The van.
I had booked, I thought an econovan-type like a Toyota Hiace.
Big enough to take the canoe but small enough to be maneuverable and easy to drive.
What I got was this beast.
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| The Cargo Van |
It was frickin' huge. I couldn't see out of the sides or the back and had to use the side mirrors.
It was crap to drive as the bloody thing was heavy with an automatic drive so it surged when going up hills. The handbrake, when properly applied kind of locked and was almost impossible to disengage, and when not properly engaged failed to grip at all which made any sort of hill driving difficult. This proved to be a problem in the gridlock traffic in Auckland today. Being the day before Black Friday Sales and, as most major retailers have allowed 'Black Friday' to spill over to 'Holy Fuck' Thursday, every man and his dog were out and about in the city. That, coupled with the extensive roadworks going on spelled chaos. I was making my way to an unknown destination in Orakei, in a bloody behemoth, with routes that changed because of road diversions. I drove a truck at Murray Roberts but I was known more for my wine skills than for truck driving whereas Richard was the complete opposite.
Women. Did I mention The Old Girl? When I told her that I was going to Auckland to collect the canoe (it was supposed to be a surprise Christmas present for her but she wheedled it out of me) she rattled off a list of locations where she wanted me to buy and collect things. All of those required careful driving in busy streets, finding car parks and trying to parallel park a beast that gave no side or rear vision. Needless to say I only managed to fulfill two out of her thee requests which left me frazzled.
I headed off home (back again), stopping at a motorway service station for lunch which catered to campervans, trucks and trailers and other behemoths, providing them with plenty of room to turn and park.
I stopped on the way north at Kaiwaka at The Italian Bakery to buy The Old Girl some butter chicken pies. She maintains that these are the best in the country so I bought four of them (unheated) to put in the freezer for her for when she arrives home next month.
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| It might not look like much but these are delicious. |
Arriving home I surprised myself by reversing the van up our steep driveway without any problems. I was thinking of driving up and trying to turn it around at the top but because it is so big I was concerned at getting it stuck. I unloaded the canoe and other goodies that I'd bought and drove back to Whangarei (half hour) to return the van to the rental outfit and collect my car.
On the way home I stopped at our local tavern to reward myself with a delicious and cold lager.
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| There are stunning views across Parua Bay from the tavern. |
Job done.
4 comments:
What an adventure. Some people would have been happy to hear, "I picked up the canoe." But we got so much more! I'm already looking forward to the post about eating the pies!
I thought I'd reply for Robert because he's not available at the moment...
Well done Peter. That was interesting.
Oh dear. Since Robert has gone are you filling in for him for reading and comprehension?
I said that I bought the pies for The Old Girl, not me. She will be eating them and I very much doubt that she will take kindly to me observing her while taking notes. There will be no future post on 'eating the pies'.
Go on then, ruin my morning!
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