On the Road: Traveling Solo

Picking up where I left off before Blog4NZ, Kaikoura (where we swam with dolphins) was one of the last stops on my road trip with Louise. That was the day before the earthquake, and Louise was meant to fly out of Christchurch the day after. After testing the runways, it was announced that international flights would begin again midday on Wednesday (a couple hours before Lou’s scheduled flight to Australia). By the time we had confirmation on this, we had to rush back to camp and pack up everything (making sure to sort through and divide our belongings after 10 days in a wee car together!) We managed to get her to the airport in time for her flight and I sorted out the juggling of rental cars.

Lou and I part ways... sad day!

I had arranged to “relocate” a car from Christchurch back to Nelson after our trip. That way, I would be able to see some Nelson friends and join the Flying Kiwi bus again from there. Rental car relocation is a nice opportunity to get from point A to point B with a free rental car. There are some stipulations – you have to pay for petrol, and you have limited mileage in a certain time frame – but it seemed ideal for what I needed! In retrospect, it may have been cheaper to take a bus, but I wouldn’t have had the freedom that comes with driving.

I checked in to pick up the new rental, transferred my belongings, and then returned our “Rocky” at another agency. While standing at the counter, the agent seemed a bit agitated. At one point he froze, interrupting his sentence, then looked at me with concern and confusion. “Did you not feel that?” “Oh, no… I guess not.” The fact that I was an outsider, unable to relate to him about the reality he was experiencing, seemed to be uncomfortable for him. I assured him that my friend felt the aftershocks all night and for some reason I could not feel them. He did not seem at ease by this, and instead rigidly finished finding my paperwork and led me to my car.

During the time Lou was waiting for her flight, there was a serious aftershock.

Think left.

I had heard Nate talk about how every American he's ever seen drive a car in New Zealand turns on the windshield ("windscreen" here) wipers instead of the turn signals, and hugs the outside edge of the lane to a frightening degree. Well, I had never driven a car on the "wrong" side of the road before, but I thought I would probably adjust pretty quickly.

The car we rented is manual, which means I am the designated driver. Of course it would happen that I stalled before we even pulled out of the driveway, but once I got used to the clutch, we were in business. We pulled out of the rental lot and first off made a right hand turn. Moving to the far side of the street I could handle, but sure enough I surprised myself by flicking the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal! With a little assistance turning them off (or, as it was, turning on the rear wipers as well, before figuring out how to turn them off) we were officially on our way! We made a stop at the grocery store to stock up on some food for the weekend and then headed out of Auckland towards the Coromandel Peninsula.