Parking your Trundler

A few years ago, in Bisbee Arizona when checking into the prominent historic hotel we parked out front on the main street to check in. I asked the reception clerk where the parking was and he said, “Oh just go up the street next to the hotel and pull around back”

Well the street next to the hotel was paved but steeper than a cow’s face. As I went up it I spied an alley that certainly looked like it went behind the hotel. It did go behind the hotel and as I turned down it I discovered that it was even steeper than the paved road I turned off, and was loose gravel. Once I arrived at the bottom I was indeed behind the hotel but trapped by loose gravel and hemmed in by buildings.

All The Way From Quebec

Fortunately, a Canadian appeared out the back door and helped me get turned around.  We ended up parking back in front.

Getting into our downtown Auckland hotel is a bit like that except the obstacles are road construction, building construction, a narrow-hidden drive, and thousands of humans going every which way, but as it turns out pedestrians do not have the right of way here, and it has become quite a sport getting them to jump out of the way as our rental car with Japanese controls comes screaming around the corner.

It was our last day in Auckland so before leaving the city we headed north to the Auckland outpost of the motor company. Greg was amazingly gracious in letting us take rides on some new bikes, provided me with some wonderful conversation, several great ideas and things to see in his home town of Rotorua.

The drive back south through the city was a bit faster than going north to the shop as most of the daily commuters were off the road, and we were soon on the open motor way seeing a more green and rural part of New Zealand.

Cows, corn and sheep dotted the green hillsides. A short coffee break in Hamilton, and a stop at a phone store to pick up a local usb charger, as the last hotel power outlets smoked our two u.s. ones and one New Zealand one, bringing our trip total of burned electrical equipment to four with the first one having actual fire and smoke.

Black swans just about greeted us as we pulled off the road to google direction to our hotel, that features our own thermal pool right out the bathroom window, step ladder provided on request.