Surname issues. Spilled ketchup.
Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Let me explain.
The day started at 4 am. I double checked my bags and waited for the others to wake up. I’m nervous because everything needs to fall into place perfectly today. It’s already a stressful day. My roommate Josie was nice enough to drive me, Maja, Mari, and Martin to the airport at this ungodly hour. Much obliged, Josie. Really.
We got to the airport and immediately start having trouble with checking in. Mari’s last name has a Norwegian “ø”and it complicates international travel. After battling to get her boarding pass, we got onto the flight without any other complications. Now, in theory, here’s where it gets tricky. Our flight was scheduled to land at 1 pm We needed to be at the ferry station no later than 2 pm. We had to go through border security and customs, order an Uber, and pray that he drove fast.
We got through customs alright but border security was another story. Maja somehow got a carrot on board the flight, but sadly, it had to be confiscated as no foreign plants or animals are allowed through. We all wept with her.
We took the slowest Uber through Wellington as we took in the first sights on the ground in New Zealand. He didn’t seem to care that we were in a hurry, but that was alright. We got to the ferry terminal, checked in and relaxed.
For five seconds.
Where’s my phone…
I left it in the Uber. It’s a gonner.
After many tedious minutes, we established that the Uber driver would bring the phone to the ferry terminal and it would go on the 5:30 pm ferry. I could rest easy now…sort of.
About an hour into the journey, the ferry started slowing down. The captain announced that there was a car fire on board. They were preparing an evacuation plan. Can you imagine? My poor mother. Naturally, everyone remained calm (I’m not really sure how) and soon enough, we were up and running again. (Edit: I’ve gotten comments – it was just an exercise. But that’s not as cool to admit). Oh, and before all this happened, Martin opened up a ketchup container and it squirted all over his white shirt. How many L’s have we taken today? I lost count.
Finally, we made it to Picton and went to pick up our rental car. We had some time to kill before we had to be back to pick up my phone (I didn’t even know if it would be there), so naturally, at the insistence of Maja, we foraged for food. The Thirsty Pig Restaurant and Bar does a pretty good lamb for a first time taster. We killed time until the ferry came in – thankfully, it carried my phone.
Unfortunately, instead of arriving at our motel at around 10 pm, we arrived at 1 am. The delays set us back majorly. Apparently, the lady managing the motel had given up looking for us not 15 minutes before we showed up. Since we were loud, she woke up and came out to keep us, saying that she was “frosty”…in other words, a little annoyed. But who could blame her? It’s a quiet little town. Finally, we settled in and knocked out.
This just goes to show: roll with the punches.
Justin Fague 