3/8/10: Auckland, New Zealand
Sometimes I almost forget that Zhou and I are on our honeymoon. On one hand it feels like we were married years ago while on the other many people think we’re a teenage brother/sister traveling band (our big hit song was clearly “All My Life”). On both hands though there’s one big thing missing from our honeymoon: free upgrades!
Today I definitely did not forget that we are honeymooning.
After cooking ham and cheese melts for lunch in a kitchen that was dirtier than Orlando Pace’s jockstrap after an overtime game (I’m just guessing here, I don’t know this firsthand), we finished a couple games of Scrabble amidst a flurry of flies which we can only assume were big word freaks themselves. Then, in the same clothes that we’d been wearing for the past three days, we headed to the bus stop to catch the cheapest ride we could find back to Auckland.
Then our Nakedbus pulled up in all its glory. (For those of you who are curious, the bus company name in no way refers to the attire required on board.) Based on our past experience, approximately 50 people would cram into this bus and suck all the fresh air out in the first few minutes of the ride. Not today. We climbed aboard to find 12 of the most comfortable-looking recliners where the tiny rigid seats should have been. The driver claimed that the crew was too lazy to change the seats since the bus wasn’t full, but I’m almost positive that the Nakedbus crew in Paihia are all avid readers of nohurrycurry and they saw Zhou and me wandering the streets the day before. It’s amazing how popular this blog has become.
Anyway, the ride itself was actually incredibly uncomfortable as our driver seemed to be trying out to be a stunt driver in the next Jason Statham movie. She zigged and zagged all over the road and I’m pretty sure I saw her drift like an expert Mario Kart driver around one corner. But by the time Zhou and I wanted to throw up as we got off the bus in Auckland, the only thing that mattered to me was our upgrade.
And it wasn’t even the last upgrade of the day. We showed up at our hostel ready to relax in our version of a honeymoon suite: two beds in an eight bed dorm room. However, the manager had overbooked the dorm room, so he sent us down the street to another place. At this point I would have been a bit leery, but I had noticed the “I LUV NHC” bumper sticker on his car so I knew he too was a fan of the blog. Sure enough, we had nothing to worry about. We were escorted into the family’s guesthouse where we were shown a nice large private bedroom complete with decorative pillows on the bed. Turns out we were sharing the entire guesthouse with only one other couple, so we only had to compete with the two of them for the bathroom, kitchen and common area. It was definitely the kind of hostel living I could get used to.
Now if only we can continue our roll and get bumped to first class on our flight to Argentina…
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Picture of the Day: Reminds me of a Dr. Seuss flower.
I hope you weren’t exaggerating about the drifting bus b/c I laughed outloud. I would very much like to see that actually.
We have found that in New Zealand, all things are possible
I love upgrades. They are like surprise presents when you travel.
They are the one thing that can make me as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning.
Can you imagine if your presents on Christmas morning were all upgrades? What a day that would be.
Glad you got your postcard!
Just found your site–love that you are doing a backpacking honeymoon! We just got back from ours a few months ago and despite the lack of honeymoon suites and general luxury, it was totally perfect. Happy travels!