Day 7 - Start of Leg 3 Sydney to Auckland Mon 15 - 02 - 16

Today began with an early start - waking at 03:00…… this was because the minibus taking us to Sydney airport was due at 04:15. The plan was to get us to the airport early as check-in would start at 05:45 for an 08:45 flight time. The drive was uneventful but fairly quick and we arrived at the airport finding it empty. Very quickly checked the bags in then went for some breakfast.. We all had a really tasty full breakfast that was actually swapped around between us all.. John ended up with about 3 lots of mushrooms and downed the lot !! Once all were finished, bill paid, it was off through passport control where events of what was to be a somewhat harrowing day began to unfold….

In an attempt to keep the carry on flight bags under the advised weight limit electronics such as laptops and ipads were distributed between us !! Pauls camera case was put through twice as they were not sure what was showing, but cleared on the second attempt !! Pat was carrying a laptop in her bag with her tablet, but placed them both in the same tray… this caused a problem so they had to be split up into separate trays and put through Xray again… once more there were cleared so off we went towards the departure gate.

During the walk through Duty free Paul's phone rang, which was unexpected, but before he could answer the call it rang off !! As he was attempting to send a txt message to check what was happening the phone rang again… With great regret it was at this point we found out from Paul's sister Cindy that their mum Mags had passed away earlier in the day (14th) after a very long and extremely painful fight against cancer. God bless her !!

This had the obvious damping effect on the day and was an omen of things to come.

After the usual wait in departures we eventually boarded the plane (an Airbus A380 ) and took off very close to expected departure time.. The flight was quite pleasurable and seemed to pass quickly. Before we knew it we were heading in to land in Auckland and ahead of the expected arrival time….. Thinking this could be good luck we disembarked and headed off to baggage collection.. Got the bags and made our way to passport / immigration control…. The day went rapidly downhill from there….. Bags again went through Xrays at least twice more again, checked and rechecked and repacked but after much deliberation were allowed to pass through..

Next it was passport control.. John and Lis headed off through the Aus line, Trev and Paul were herded into the e.passport section and Pat (without a new passport) was sent through the normal channels. Dee decided to go with her and we would all meet at the far end having all passed through..

For whatever reason Trev passed through without any Problems, Lis sailed through also.. John was thwarted as he forgot to remove his glasses and the system did not recognise him, so round he went again, getting through safely without his glasses on !!! Paul tried the same routine but was not successful. On selecting the buttons to apply for a visa on entry the machine coughed out his passport and told him to go to the Passport services desk !! Another slow moving queue was encountered and a slow procession began. After what seemed like an eternity he finally got to the front of the queue and was told to approach the desk… handing over his passport and declaration card the immigration lady started a barrage of questions…. Where have you come from ? How long are you here for ? Where are you staying whilst in Aukland ? What do you mean "not one address", where are you staying ? Do you have transport ? What company is the hire car with ? Where are you staying tonight ? What is the contact address and phone number ?.....

And so it went on for ages…. However, she suddenly gave in and stamped the forms, handed back his passport and wished him a Happy Holiday !!!!!!

Poor Pat & Dee did not fare much better as they had been in the queue from hell !! So many people trying to get through !! We did all eventually manage to meet up and headed off out of the airport to find the transport to the hire car company…. When, at last, we found the correct exit, we pushed all the bags across the road to where we had been advised to wait.. We were looking for a large minibus type of vehicle to take all 6 of us and our mass of luggage. What we got was a rather small "people mover" of 7 seats and minimal load space…. Hhmmmm…… driver, 6 of us, loads of bags, not gonna fit !!!! The driver, who appeared to speak little English forced as much as he could into the rear section and we had to sit on, around and under the rest of the bags !! Although looking rather comical we could not see the funny side of things…. It had been contemplated that the three men go off and collect the hire car and then come back for the "girls"…. We decided against this, and as it transpired was a good choice. Having jammed ourselves into the car sardine style the driver set off and went on and on and on and on until we all realised that had we split up we would probably never meet up again without getting totally lost !! During the drive to the car hire office Paul had a horrible of feeling impending doom, in that he was suddenly overcome with the thought that this might be the actual hire car that was intended for our holiday…

We arrived at the office and all fell out as best we could without breaking any limbs !! the office staff started the paperwork and all seemed to be going well.. until !!!!!! we were invited to inspect the proposed vehicle.. Paul's worse fears had come to fruition… the totally useless small "people carrier" was the car they wanted us to have….. this was declined in as nice a way as possible, explaining that it was absolutely impractical for our group and was not the type of vehicle that was booked months ago !!! The staff member seemed to imply that this was the vehicle and that nothing else could be done…. Not to be outdone Paul extracted all of the printed out sheets of every e.mail contact that he had had with the hire company and took pains to point out that an 8 seater had been booked…. The staff member looked perplexed but went off to another office, eventually reappearing to state that "yes, it was their mistake, but they did not have a replacement car available" - "Not good enough" was the reply and away he went again..

This time he had "better news" - we have a car that is the specification that was booked but it was not ready for use… it would not be ready until the next day, so perhaps we could return in the morning for it… Again "not good enough" was the reply as we were actually not staying in Auckland but were driving about 180 Kms to our first stop point… The look on the staff members face was priceless as he realised that he was paddling up river against the tide.. As the temperature rose so did the tempers as we had now spent a lot of time getting nowhere and still had a couple hours drive ahead of us.. All this on top of getting up at 03:00 earlier in the day..

A compromise solution was suggested in that we take this vehicle to where we were going and he would ensure that the replacement car was driven up to us in Whangarei as early as he could possibly make it, where we could exchange cars and continue with our proper vehicle. There being no other option available it was very reluctantly decided to accept the offer of exchange and go with the plan…

John and Trev valiantly tried to load the car as best they could leaving enough space for us poor passengers.. Pat, Dee & Lis threw in their invaluable advise and knowledge of packing a car whilst Paul completed the paperwork..

At last, many hours later than had been expected, we set off on our journey.. only to be thwarted in our progress by unexpected roadworks which sent us on a detour away from our intended direction. So following the signs off we went, but were getting nowhere fast !! The map that we had was hard to follow and was made doubly difficult by there not being any road signs. With much back seat driving and advice as to which way to turn causing the tempers to become frayed again Lis got onto google maps on her phone… Success we thought, but alas no, she declared we were still going the wrong way but could not decide which should be the correct way… Foerunately we made a right turn at some traffic lights and had to wait for a short period in a queue.. this gave time for sta nav to catch up and a route was decided….

Success…. We managed to get onto the correct road… Next stop Whangarei !!! WRONG !!!

About a third of the way into the journey we came upon a sign warning us of impending "Toll charges" on the motorway that we had to travel along . It did suggest a free alternative, but on checking the map this would add an extraordinary amount of time to an already very long and exhausting day so was quickly shelved as an idea…

We did decide to stop for a break and coffee etc and were lucky enough to find that we could pay the toll in advance..Good plan, lets do it !!

Back on the road we went and the rest of the trip was not too bad !! Trev, as the co-pilot, decided to have a quick nap but was spotted by Dee from the backseat and was severely chastised for his trouble !! Getting ever closer to our destination we once again were stopped at traffic lights when Dee shouted out "Look at that!" "Paul Matthews Rd"… Sure enough the road that cut across the one we were travelling was called "Paul Matthews Rd" and spelt correctly! How much of a coincidence is that in life ??? We made plans to find out why the road was indeed called that !!

Ever onwards we went, closing in on our goal with Lis in the back seat acting as "Director of Operations" , however she did not give much warning of a vital left turn and the subsequent squeal of rubber on tarmac followed by the screams of panic from the other passengers were testament to how late she had been !! The corner safely navigated though, we surged forward, "left here", " I think", "yes" , "no", " yes", "ok straight ahead", "cross the roundabout and look for" …..this carried on for a while but we did actually manage to get ourselves and the van to our resting place in one piece !! Checked in, keys got, wi-fi sorted, found the house after a few 3 point turns and luggage into appropriate rooms…

Food !!!! Was the cry… so Pizza for delivery was the order of the day, however, some other small essentials were obviously going to be needed… Dee made a list, Paul got the car keys and off they set leaving Lis to call for the delivery..

After checking with reception as to the best options for a shop to be open at 20:30 (8:30 pm) we set off supposedly following an easy route on a not too precise map… one misunderstanding of the map later and we were heading off into the dark, chasing our shadow and not finding any shops… until…. Lucky right turn at some traffic lights and a shop that was open.. Or was it ?? It appeared to be closing but in we went picking up items on the run as they were announcing that the shop was actually closed… disaster had stuck back at the house as Pat found a broken bottle of lotion in her bag, attributed to the driver at the airport, and Lis was frantically calling then texting to say we needed black sacks and zip lock bags….. Duly found we neared the checkout and a feeling of dread came upon us.. What if this was a Cash and Carry and we needed a membership card ??? Luckily the girl on the till accepted our purchases, charged us a fortune and sent us on our way.. On arrival back at the house we were told that the pizza had arrived… Shopping stowed away, we all sat down to our food, and it was delicious after the day we had just endured !!

It was long after that fatigue started to set in and bed was the obvious order of the day !!

Surely it can't get any worse !!!! Watch this space…..

Ps…… Mum, if you are up there looking down on us, you will and are sadly missed, and can I ask if there are likely to be any more of these king of days can you find some way to let us know ???