Three Strikes and You Are Out- Pre Day Four

The plan was for the six of us to meet at 0900 to leave  to catch the 10 AM Car Ferry to  Waiheke Island. It is a 30 minute drive to the Ferry terminal at Half Moon Bay. Looking at the sky and the weather report, it didn’t seem worth spending the money to take the ferry and be rained on all day, so we changed plans.

We would drive out to Titirangi Village for coffee then see the Waitakere Ranges and West Coat Beaches. If we were rained on, at least we could come back to the hotel and not have invested a lot of money.

Many other Morganeers had arrived during the night, so we greeted them as they meandered through the lobby.

Then we loaded up the Morgans and headed out for our drive. It immediately started raining, which was okay as long as we moved. A few blocks away, Michael pulled up to us and said his Morgan wouldn’t go into second gear. It would go into third, fourth, fifth, but not second. We turned around, and headed back to the hotel parking garage.  By the time we arrived, the Morgan would go into second gear, and the rain had stopped.

Back out from the garage and on our way again, soon to have more rain. But at least we were moving, so it wasn’t bad. Dennis, with his “quick” roof on his Roadster, already had the roof up. We had on our rain jackets, as did Michael and Patsy.

About 30 minutes later we arrived in a town that I thought was Titirangi, and pulled into a parking lot which turned out to have no available parking spaces. Philip told me that Garmin said we had 10 more Km to go. I had set Garmin to go to the Visitor Center in Titirangi, so we thought we weren’t in the village yet.  After some difficult turning around in the parking lot, we headed back on the road, with Dennis directly behind us, and between Dennis and Michael were three or more cars.  We arrived at a roundabout, and headed on the high road with Dennis following us. Having lost us, Michael took the lower road headed toward the beach, as he could no longer see Dennis, nor Dennis see him.

Shortly we slowed down looking for Michael and Patsy. No Michael……. so we followed the street round to come back to the town, which we had now decided had been Titirangi.

There was beautiful flora in this area.

West Coast Trees

Beautiful Ferns

I called Michael on the mobile and no answer. Okay, we will go to the village, get  cup of coffee and keep calling Michael, or he will call us.

We parked the car on the street up to the village, and as we were getting out of the car, a gentleman came up to us and said “ I am afraid your friends have been in an accident down the hill. They are basically okay, but the car isn’t”. Down the hill was a very steep hill, and we headed that way. Traffic had been stopped going down the hill and the firelady directing traffic didn’t want us to go down. But we told her we needed to “these were our friends”.

So we all headed down the hill, me with a lot of trepidation, because I had no idea how I would get back up. It was probably ½ mile down the winding road, but we trudged onward. We HAD to get there, despite the excellent job the police and fire were doing.

The ambulance was pulling away when the guys arrived, and we ladies were a bit later so totally missed them.

We answered questions for the police, and took photos.  It appears that Michael had made a U-turn and ended up back up driving on the right hand side of the road, rather than the left hand side (where they drive in New Zealand). Unfortunately a garbage truck came down the hill and as they did saw each other, slammed on their brakes, but not in time to not hit head on. This did major damage to the front of Morgan and no damage to the garbage truck.

Morgan post Accident

A very kind police woman drove us back up the hill to our Morgans and we headed to the hospital in Henderson where Michael and Patsy were taken..

Eventually I was allowed into the Emergency Room to see them both. Michael was totally physically unharmed. Mentally he was very distraught, but not a cut or bruise. He didn’t have an airbag, having changed his steering wheel.

Patsy had the airbag deflate into her, and had bumped and cut her knee possibly on the safety cross bar. X-Rays had been done which had some questionable results,  but then a CAT SCAN was needed to rule out serious injuries. Fortunately the results were negative, so her cut and banged up knee was treated, and all other bruises and sore spots considered easily healable with time.

Patsy and Michael After CT SCAN.

As her clothes had been cut off her, she arrived back at the hotel in one fancy hospital gown that said “Property of St. John’s Hospital”, and a blanket. I didn’t get that wonderful picture, but she was very stylish and attended Happy Hour in the most unique outfit ever.

I was very impressed with the Emergency Room and its staff. It was “a zoo” in there most of the time we were there (5 hours), but Michael and Patsy received pretty good care. My only criticism, as a nurse, was there was no call light for the patient, and I wonder if we hadn’t been there to arouse someone for Patsy, how that would have worked.

Michael and Patsy plan on hiring a car and continuing on the trip. Fortunately we have until Monday before moving on, and if we can get Patsy to take it easy, she should be feeling well enough to continue onward.

Sorting out the car will happen over time.

Philip and I went out to dinner with UK friends Callie, Colin, Roger, and Linda at a wonderful restaurant out along the harbor. 

 

Rissotto with Shrimp

Salad

Philip's Red Snapper

  

Philip, Susan, Roger, Elaine, Richard, Linda

PreDay Five- Museum Day in Auckland

From Happy Hour, we joined up with Dennis and Nancy, Michael and Patsy, Richard and Vivian, and Gerry and Maggi, and headed out for another Thai dinner restaurant around the corner. We should know better than to order “the Banquet Meal, but we did, and it wasn’t very good Thai Food, in our opinion. Too bland and each dish tasted like the other. The company was wonderful however.

Dinner at Thai Restaurant

    Returning from the restaurant, we stopped at Movenpick’s Ice Cream store where we each enjoyed a cone. We discussed tomorrows plans  with Michael and Patsy while Dennis took care of his AA insurance and obtaining a local phone number. Elaine had heard about MOTAT, the Museum of Transport and Technology, and it seemed like a fun thing to do. So plans were made to meet at 10 AM to head out to this “museum”.

    After finding our Morgan parking places, the four of us parked and went into the museum stopping by this train on our way in.

Five hours later, we decided that our feet and backs hurt, and we weren’t going to get through the remainder of the museum this day.  It was a well done museum, that was over many buildings. We never made it to the aviation museum.

Just a small town

Us

Blacksmith

Victorian Town Chapel with newlyweds Patsy and Michael

Projector

Ferguson Tractor for Sir Hiliary's Antarctic Expedition

Heart Lung Machine 1950's

First Computer- Differential Analyzer

Early Mixer

Patsy and Michael

Hydrangeas

My Caesar Salad for Lunch

Auckland from the bridge

More Morgan people have started to arrive at the hotel with a big group coming in at 12:45 AM tonight.
After a quick Happy Hour, with Dennis and Nancy joining us, we caught a cab to the most spectacular movie theatre called the Event Cinemas, where there were probably 10 screens, a bowling alley, a game room, and more.  We enjoyed the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, showing wonderful scenery of Greenland and Iceland. Walking back to the hotel, we stopped at a Belgian pub for a good dinner. Food and drink is expensive here, at least in Auckland.

Belgian Crepe and Salad

Meatballs

Plans were made to take the Car Ferry to Waiheke Island on Thursday with us  meeting at 9 AM. My back definitely needed a rest day.  Stayed tuned for Thursday's blog, which I can't post until some notifications are done- all is ok.

Arrived in Auckland

We were just about ready in time to be picked up by our friend Laura to take us to the airport. Dry the dishes, cat count, and we were out the door. I had to strain to keep from tears coming by leaving our cats for such a long time. But they have Kristi who is wonderful in caring for them, who called us later in the afternoon to report they were doing fine, with Bentley even eating the chicken treats left primarily for Healey.

Packed and ready to go

   Our flight was one of the only ones in the afternoon that wasn’t late or cancelled. The airport was mobbed, with people trying to return home from the holidays, and having been stuck at various airports. Our short hop to LAX was uneventful, other than the traffic mess at LAX trying to take the shuttle from terminal 7 to terminal 2.  Fortunately we had adequate time to not be rushed.

Philip in his Space Seat

With a 13 hour flight to Auckland, we had splurged on Premier Economy Space seats, which at first, I didn’t think were worth it. But when we managed to sleep 6 uninterrupted hours, I knew the difference. Not to mention real china, real knives, and better food. This flight was also uneventful.

The approach to Auckland airport was beautiful, as the day was clear.

Keith, one of our NZ organizers met us as we exited from the airport.  We were transported over to Jenner’s where Ian Jenner had taken such wonderful care of our Morgan and had her all ready to go.

Ian and daughter along with Philip

Collecting our Mogan

Philip drove Morgan to the hotel, while Keith transported me in the Honda. I have yet to try getting in/out of the Morgan. Maybe tomorrow.  We stopped at the petrol station where Philip filled her up at the cost of NZ$93/US$77 for 39.3 liters (10 gallons) or about $7 a gallon. 

We checked in and were fortunate to have a room ready at about 11 AM and with a beautiful view to boot. The rooms are "dated" but clean and adequate. 

Hard to complain about THIS view. 

After unpacking, we headed out on foot, up the hill, to the AA office where we obtained our NZ AA coverage. There is reciprocity with the US AAA, but we did have to purchase “repatriation to Auckland” coverage, which is well worth it should the need arise.

A trip to the O2 store to purchase SIM chips for our phones and personal portable hot spot, has us now communicating.

Then lunch at our favorite Scottish restaurant, where Philip tried the Georgie pie and I tried a Kiwi burger, which was the usual burger, with a fried egg and large slice of BEET, which was really interesting.

Kiwi Burger with fried egg and beet

Georgie Pie

On the way returning to the hotel, we scanned the stores about the hotel to see where necessities could be acquired. I was very tired and my feet hurting. 

Dennis and Nancy were just arriving from picking up their Morgan, and Michael was also there. So we planned drinks for Happy Hour at the hotel bar at 6 PM.

Add caption

Gull sculpture

Ferry Building

Anything after this time will be in tomorrow’s blog, as we most likely will struggle through dinner, and head to bed soon after.

Today's Report from British Correspondent Already in Auckland.

This is how each day will go on MONZA or any Morgan trip….

Hi Everyone,

It is me again.

Well if you arrive today you will see we have a lot of rain, certainly around Auckland.

Sue and I set off around mid day to head down to the Copthorne (Hotel)  to check that I could find it and check out the underground parking ramps (they are OK as I am sure Keith and others would know). What the counter clerk did tell me was not to leave anything of value in the cars, ie sat nav's on the windscreen etc.

Afterwards we planned to meet up with Lionel, the local Bugatti contact, he lives not too far from the Copthorne and has 3+ Bugatti's and has a friend who flies Air NZ to the UK and has just taken delivery of a new (Morgan) +4 and hopes his flight schedules allow him to join us for a bit, I did not catch his name.

On our way down from Whangaparaoa it started to drizzle, this became more like rain and by the time we were on the motorway it was very heavy indeed. We carried on, but by the time we reached the Copthorne relented and put the hood up! called it a day (well a ********day actually) and returned back to our accommodation. 

We stopped at a local supermarket (Pack & Save - huge) when we came back to the car I had a business card under the wiper offering to buy my car, so saves me the return journey, or we could sell that green +8 in the warehouse?

Then there was a camper van parked close by and the guy came over, a Brit, he had recognised the GB plate and number plate. We chatted and he asked if we knew a Gerry  back in the UK who has a +8, well actually we do!! It seems he and Gerry also have MG's and that is how they knew each other. What one visit to a supermarket car park can bring!,

Well the rain seems to be easing off at 16.30 local time, but the mist is low and the wet weather looks set in for today. The weather forecaster on the iPad says we will have good sunshine tomorrow.

The Pinot Gris is chilled and the steaks ready for the barbie later on, time for a siesta! 

Report from Auckland and More

    It was sad to hear today that one couple will not be able to make the trip due to the need for almost immediate surgery. Fortunately they have trip cancellation coverage. Their Morgan is in NZ and will need to rest at the agents warehouse until it returns with the other Morgans.
    I know how disappointed I was when there was the chance that I wouldn't be able to go because I needed back surgery, but that was November and I am doing well enough to make the trip. No bungee jumping, or long hikes, but I will do the best I can. We wish the missing Morganeers a quick recovery, and we will miss them.
   A new report from our Auckland British correspondent Geoff encourages us to bring driving gloves as the steering wheel gets hot, and a towel for the leather seats which also get hot. I note the high temperature in the 10 day forecast is 78 degrees which is a very pleasant temperature, but also note that the chance of rain for the week we are in Auckland is next to nothing. Hope that holds up. We also received a warning from him to watch our baggage allowance carefully to keep for going overweight. We double checked to be certain of what our allowance is supposed to be and print out the information "just in case". We have a local code share flight before the international one, so it may be a battle at that check in.
Below is a photo of the correspondent's 1998 Morgan +4. Looks a lot like our Morgan.

First UK Couple Report from Auckland

Geoff and Sue outside Auckland

We all received a report from Geoff and Sue who have arrived at their friends near Auckland. Their weather reports have been rain and sunshine. They are having "balcony wine" which is something that I believe we will be having frequently on this wonderful holiday.

Yesterday we headed to Sports Basement to purchase lightweight rain jackets, after Geoff's reports and reading 10 day weather reports for various places in NZ. It is difficult to enter and exit the Morgan with the roof up, so we are hoping to not have to put the roof up very often. Historically we have been pretty lucky in weather, so we hope to bring sunshine with us. Fine if it rains at night, but keep the days dry please.