5/20 - Mirrored West

It was Wednesday and we knew we were going to head east, we just weren't sure how. I called Ashley and she was nice enough to let us use her car for the day. She informed me that it wasn't insured and that it was a manual transmission. Two things I didn't want to have to worry about while trying to learn the reflection of everything I knew about driving. As I hung the phone up on the receiver it gave the clouds the go ahead to release every raindrop it had in its grasps. Ashley called back in a matter minutes, explaining that she would need the car to run some errands, so we were force to create a plan B.

Henriette, Louisa and I had already toyed with the idea of hiring a car to see some of the Peninsula outside of Coromandel Town, so we made the appropriate phone call. Putting the phone down on the receiver again was the sun's queue to enter stage left. We walked into town and onto the road out of it. We were walking along the sidewalk in the middle of nowhere when we came upon 3 chopped fish. We ignored this omen and continued on to Strongman's Vehicle Rentals. We were greeted by two large Germans Sheppard guard dogs. The less relaxed of the two ignored the girls and watched my like a hawk. I wasn't sure what to do with my hands. If I looked too tense he would be sure to attack. I stood in scarecrow formation until the owners came out to greet us.

Because I was the one who was going to hire the car, I had to follow one of the employees into a caravan full of cardboard boxes, mixed paperwork and a 1987 computer. I helped her fill in all the required fields with my sensitive information, only to find out the one we were after had an expired certificate of fitness. Because of this alert, I had to sit on a stack of papers and refill all the proper fields. The car we were after this time was considered hired out by the computer, so of course it wouldn't let us hire an already hired car so the entry fields cleared again. I left my id and credit card with the lady and decided to join the girls in the kitchen caravan for cheap instant coffee and the opportunity to laugh at all the knickknacks on the shelves and walls.

They eventually cured the temporary y2k and handed us the keys to a studly silver Nissan with a slow air leak in one of the tires. Time to saddle up!. I entered what would normally be the passenger seat and pulled out of the drive way. To signal my turn out of the driveway, I warned with waving windshield wipers. The entire journey was like learning how to drive all over again. I had to forget all my instincts and pray that any traffic signs wouldn't ask too much out of me. We took an alternate route to the east coast town of Whitianga. A scenic,windy, unsealed mountain road that took us by waterfalls, deciduous trees reminding us of the seasons, and the occasional wild pig.

We arrived in Whitianga with the need of food so we grab some takeaway chips and headed for the beach. When buying chips(fries) who have to buy dipping sauce separate. This place didn't have ketchup but instead had a small tin can of tomato sauce. We took our various forms of chips and dipping canisters down to the beach and ate and discussed different English to German translations, German to American stereotypes(which I mostly found hard to argue against.) From there we drove over to Hot water beach to watch some surfers and realized the tide was too high to be mining for hot water in the sand. From there it was to Cathedral Cove. It was my second time hiking in to the Cove, but being with friends adds a whole new angle to it. The sun was falling to the horizon so we hiked with haste, getting there to enjoy Cathedral Cove painted with the magic hours palette of pinks and oranges.

I drove the Silver Mullet back in the dark with the confidence of a seasoned student driver. I signaled my blinker when I intended to and excused the rain from the windshield on the first try. But the sacrifice for this efficiency was seen on my speedometer. I was overtaken(passed) with regularity, but I delivered the WWOOFing staff to the cafe all in one piece and safe to wash dishes another day.