Our Gold Coast chapter had finished, in fact our Australian chapter had finished and we were sad to be leaving, but excited to be heading to New Zealand. Well, as excited as one can be when the alarm chimes at 5.30 am. Weary kids in tow we left the house for the airport to catch our Jet Star flight to Christchurch.
As we descended from cruising altitude to start our landing run we got to see what was waiting for us beneath the cloud cover. Samuel was excited to see the snow topped peaks of mountains and immediately shouted….
“I want to go there, I want to go there again, I love the snow, don’t I Daddy.”
However Lauren countered his enthusiasm with…..
“No I be sick again, I don’t want to go there, I be sick again won’t I mummy.”
The airport was just a wonderful experience. Completely empty and staffed by friendly customs officials, YES, they do exist!
“Computer says noooooo”.
Once she had finished being thoroughly rude and obstinate to the poor Italian couple in front of us, it was our turn.
“What car you want?”
“Oh, anything like a Camry, or Corolla please.”
Huffs, pushes chair back and walks to the key cupboard at the other side of the office, then shouts back.
“Nah, don’t got none, got a Yarris.”
For those unfamiliar with the Yarris, it is the size of a Fiesta, or a Mini. To be fair, we have piled into one before when driving to the Kangaroo Valley, but that was with an overnight bag, not our entire luggage.
After some further toing and froing we managed to wrangle ourselves a Nissan Tiida, yup, never heard of them either, but hey, we had some wheels!
The first dealer Dan spoke with even called 2 of his competitors to see if they had any suitable cars for us. He then gave us the address and direct contact names of a few other dealers, and more importantly who we should avoid. Then he let us go so that he could deal with another customer that had been waiting for 20 minutes!?!?!?
In another instance Dan was advised…..
“Nah, we don’t have anything like that here for you mate. But go to Car City and speak to Wayne, tell him Scrotum sent ya.”
“Cheers Scrotum.”
“No worries.”
Then he paused for a second and pondered….
“Never understood why he called me that.”
Good old Scrotum.
"If this Cathedral is still standing when I am older, I will come here and spend all of my money to save it."
Wow! Pretty profound from our little 7 year old, we weren't expecting that!