Thumbs up!

Lorraine (our camp neighbour) was incredibly kind and dropped us off at the Kerikeri market. Which was a great collection of different stalls, much more diversity than the Mangawhai markets. We got some goodies from the French patisserie then headed off to the round about to put the thumb out. We tried to find a spot that was easy to see and heaps of room to pull over. I had my thumb out and I smiled and waved at every car that passed. There were a few grouchy faces but most people smiled at us and waved back. It didn’t take long and a lovely fella named Casey pulled over. He had just had a swim and was heading to Whangarei. Heaps of room in the ute we hopped in. Absolutely lovely guy, talked about all sorts of stuff, most of his whanau are in Australia and spent his childhood in Sydney. He was a good driver, with a reggae soundtrack which made me feel at ease. Casey gave us a couple of drop off options. One just after Bunnings which is a fairly good spot to hitch next or all the way down to Ruakaka area as he lives at One Tree Point, but we need to shop at Bunnings first. Not a problem for us we head to Bunnings for some quickcrete. Lucky we have our powerpass card on our phones, we save him 28c on his bill. I tell him I bet you are glad you picked us up now lol. We get to his turn off ans he takes us past his exit so we are on the right side of the road and cars are heading in the right direction. Such a awesome guy, we offer some money but he refuses.

Thumb goes out again, this time I get bored pretty easy and my left arm is hurting faster. These cars appear to be a lot less pleasant and I get less waves than I did in Kerikeri. I pull out the dance moves and do a thumb dance. Well that perks the grumpy bastards up and I get a lot of laughs. It also makes me smile and feel better about waiting for a ride. Again not long and we get a small hatchback pull over. Thanks to our awesome neighbours in chch I know we can fit in one of those. Mark is heading to the airport and is more than happy to drop us at Orewa. Time flies by with chatty Mark and we learn all about him. I think his wife left him alone too long as he did have a lot to say. Before we knew it we were in Orewa around 1pm. The most disheartening thing about this is how long it took us to walk the small amount it takes in a car! We get some kai then head to catch a bus. Before we know it we are walking up into the De Luen Inn and trying not to wake the hosts. I tried my best not to creep up on Nana when I heard her wake up, luckily I didn’t give her a fright. It is really nice being back at the grandies and getting a chance to catch up again. We have a to do list before we get on the plane in a week, I will endeavour to be entertaining and leave out the boring parts.