We arrived in Auckland relieved that the 14 hour flight went
as well as it did. This morning, the weather was good and the short term
forecast was for a summery day. We had slept some on the plane so felt good and
energized to be in New Zealand for the first time.
We picked up our rental car and headed out through rush hour
traffic. Driving on the left side of the road in a car that's opposite to what
we're used to was a challenge, but one we were prepared to take on. The two awkward parts of the car were the turn signal
lever being on the right side of the steering column, and the inside rear
vision mirror on the left side of the diver. While city driving, I use the turn signal and
mirror more often than I realized, and as a result the windshield wipers went
on as the first reaction to prepare for turning and lane changes. As for the
inside rear vision mirror, I just didn't learn to look there for the first hour
of driving. I just used the outside mirrors.
We took a beautifully scenic route called the Coastal
Highway from Auckland to Coromandel. The Google
travel time was stated as 3 hours and as usual, it took us about 6, but
we had all day. Much of the road was twisty and on Friday afternoon, the locals
wanted to drive it 50% faster than we felt comfortable with under the circumstances. So, we didn't appreciate
each other much.
It became apparent that we arrived in NZ in the calm before
the storm. There was a Cyclone warning for overnight and the next day. A cyclone
in the southern hemisphere is called a hurricane in the northern. We had never
experienced either before, so upon our arrival at Sea Perch, our accommodation,
we had some preparing to do. We felt that of the things we could control,
surviving a power outage was our best focus. Candles, flashlight, battery
radio, backup gas stove with extra fuel canister, and a full tank of gas in the
car, pretty much completed the list. Our cottage, Sea Perch seemed pretty well
equipped and a quick trip to town took care of the outstanding. From the locals,
we determined there probably wouldn't be a storm surge on our shore due to the
protected nature of the harbour. We determined we were on the town water supply,
so probably wouldn't lose water unless it was catastrophic. Also, there wasn't
a prescribed place as an emergency relief centre, but maybe the local school in
town would be good place. In general, the Coromandel locals were pretty laid back about the whole thing.
After dinner, we went to bed to wait for the storm. We had come
to see New Zealand, from the local's perspective, and New Zealand had welcomed
us in a very special and appropriate way.
Click here for the next story in this series:
http://travellingwithsteveandmarlene.blogspot.ca/2014/03/cyclone-lusi.html
Click here for the next story in this series:
http://travellingwithsteveandmarlene.blogspot.ca/2014/03/cyclone-lusi.html
