Carless like a slumdog

Actually I was only carless for a day and a bit. The insurance co organised me a hire car. Went to collect it and there was a queue of tourists 10 deep so it took quite a while. Its a slightly odd sensation being a car hirer in your home town where all the trips are normal work-shop-home type journeys. Seeing all the cars being loaded up with suitcases and rucksacks made me want to take off somewhere on holiday.

Friday was a public holiday here: Waitangi Day. The PM got jostled and nearly had his jacket torn off by a protestor. Again the hot weather stifled any frantic activity, so a lazy day was had. Some friends came over for a BBQ in the evening and quite a lot of food and wine was put away.

Saturday the heat drove us to the local beach where the water felt like a warm bath. It must have been the combination of late in the afternoon of a hot day and an incoming tide. It felt beautiful to wallow in the water (and swim a bit too) yet not feel the slightest bit cold. A wedding was happening on the foreshore and the photos taken pointed in our direction. So if anyone has their wedding photos back and sees two strange ladies waving in the sea - it was Tamsin & me! We also saw some fish jumping quite close while we were swimming. Activity perked up in the cool of the evening. We walked around the coast to the local cinema to see Slumdog Millionaire. We all enjoyed the film, and the music.

Sunday morning we decided to go for a look at the Car Fair where I bought my last 3 cars. Not much worth investigating though. Porbably all teh good cars were snapped up before we got there at 11am. We bumped into an ex-work colleague Alex. who was selling a van. Not giving up on a chance to look at more vehicles than humanly necessary, John then took me on a sightseeing tour of the Great South Rd car yards. Again nothing inspired me. I want my car back! I did go for a test drive in a Prius, and I was impressed how quiet and smooth the engine switches from motor to battery power.

In the evening Tamsin made pizza from scratch which was yummy. Then we played some board games while John googled information about car thefts in Auckland. Apparently over 70% are found and returned.

The 'Weeds' Prius ad...