Well, last week was interesting. Basically, Marty took the car to VTNZ in Wellington a month ago and it needed a few things done. Seatbelts needed to retract more rapidly, a brake light needed to be replaced and we had to have a 'small hole' in the exhaust pipe welded up. So we did all that. Took the car to a place in Waipuk to get the hole fixed and the rest we did ourselves. So, last Wednesday (on our very last possible day that we could get the recheck done) we called up VTNZ to find out where the nearest place was to get the recheck and they told us there was one in Dannevirke and that we didn't need to book. So off we went with the idea in mind thatwe would be back by 1pm.
We arrived in Dannevegas and found the most tiny, run down VTNZ and wandered into the office where there was quite a bored man sitting and smoking. We asked him to do the recheck but he informed us that he only did CoFs, not WoFs and that the closest place was Palmy or Hastings. Palmy is about an hour away and Hastings even further. I tried my luck by calling VTNZ and was put through to 3 different people while I tried to find out if they would give us an extra 2 days because I was going to Napier then anyway. Apparently that was out of the question. In the end we decided to just drive to Palmy and get it over and done with - not that we had many other options by this stage!
We dropped the car off and went for a wander into Propack out of curiosity as to what they actually sold (there's not a lot to do in Palmy!). We had quite a jolly time in there perusing their wares and chatting to the woman behind the counter. We walked away with an ungodly amount of cheesecloth and a web address for a box making company.
Back at VTNZ they had just examined our car and informed us that the hole in the exhaust hadn't been fixed and that we should 'just go down the road to Pit Stop and get them to do it - maybe a $10 welding job at the most'. On our fourth trip down the road he had told us Pit Stop was on, Marty was about to throw himself out the window of the moving vehicle and we still couldn't see the bloody place. We asked someone else and repeated the process until Marty had turned a violent shade of red and refused to go back down the road again. So I ran into an optometrists in the middle of nowhere to have a look at a phone book. Off we went again and finally found the place and they said they could do it but it was a $120 job - not $10. Once again we had exhausted our options so we left the car with them and went to get a soothing beer via a saddlery shop where I wanted to buy everything.
4 pm rolled around and we had to go and pick the car up again. I gave him a few limbs as payment and got the car with a little joke about men paying for everything to Marty (when in fact I paid). We got back to VTNZ and were both fuming but also just over the whole process. They inspected it AGAIN and then came over and told us it had passed (there would have been trouble had it not!) but that it had done almost 1000km since the initial check and that posed problems for them. Marty just said, "Yep", got in the car and drove off. We didn't look back.
Anyway, that was our bried foray into the city and it wasn't a particularly pleasant one. But I have a few photos of goings-on up here:
Our Homemade Pickles are looking strong and healthy in the greenhouse....
...... along with all their friends.
The Garlic in the aviary is looking amazing
Our little chickadees with their adult-feathered wings. They look a bit ridiculous now but they'll grow into themselves.
So that is the events of the past week. There have been more things I'm sure but they have slipped my memory. I am quite sleep deprived today after a rather bigger than expected night last night at Havana and a surprise awakening at 8am in the form of a coffee visit from Dad (we had arranged for 9 but it somehow had been moved forward by an hour).
But we went to diner at Chow last night with the whole family which was lovely until there was a bit of confusion over whether Brian was going to Somalia and a drama with the spillage of a glass of wine - the waitress was at fault which was novel! And afterwards we went to Bill Bailey which was absolutely fantastic! He put on a spectacular show and had us in tears within minutes. I will be going to see him again if ever he comes back and I highly recommend him to everyone. Goodness, it makes me laugh just thinking about it!
We drove home today via Mt Bruce Wildlife Centre and got up close to the kiwis and watched the eels being fed (eels really are quite amazing) and through Parkvale Mushrooms which was cheap but the place was a bit weird. I thinkwe may have been in the wrong part of the establishment but no one pointed us in another direction. We got a big box of portobello mushies though for $10 which is a bargain. And we stopped off to see a guy about some goats which may be arriving tomorrow morning. So sometime between now and then we need to goat proof EVERYTHING.
Alright, I need to catch up on some sleep in preparation for the brand spanking new "Natural Horse-Man-Ship" training that will commence tomorrow morning. And we have our neighbours coming over for an early dinner as well so we better get the place into some sort of order.
Until next time....
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