Yesterday morning started out well. A bit of exercises, some food, and away we went to enjoy an early afternoon hike. The hike, Rotopounanu Track, is a loop trail that goes down to a beautiful lake that has sandy beaches and clear water. We decided before the hike to take our swimsuits and do a little swimming in the lake. Playing in the water and enjoying the sun was a great way to spend the day. We interacted with a curious duck, a family from LA (who are traveling the world for a year), and a couple from Wisconsin before heading back to our car. It was a great day up until 4 pm, but now is a new day and we are looking forward to the future. That is, of course, after we figure out how much damage was done to the rental car, and where, or if, we will be able to purchase another driving GPS unit, another hiking GPS unit (which we found out was also taken), another SD card of Australia/New Zealand which was in the GPS unit, and two evenloop rechargeable batteries, which we had purchased for the GPS unit. It may be very difficult finding these things in New Zealand, being such a small country. Some GPS units sold in the US cannot be sold outside the US. This unfortunate event has soured us on New Zealand. On the positive sign, the vehicle is still drivable and lockable, although the opening from the crowbar is big enough to get a hand through. Also, we did not have our camera, phones, passports, credit cards, etc. in the vehicle. Just a couple of GPS devices. Driving will be more difficult to navigate until we can get a replacement and hiking won’t be as safe on unfamiliar trails. And for those people who say, “Who needs GPS when you have a phone?”, remember that our phones don’t work for free in all of these foreign countries. Could get expensive paying $10/day for 300 days to use our phones (and they don’t work everywhere anyway.) Ah, well, we expected glitches and we will not let this one get in the way of enjoying our special trip! “On to bigger and better things!”, we said last night.
Dave is currently trying to be prepared, as the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for www.kathyanddave.com, it is his job. It seems that we have issues of biblical proportions: volcanoes (in New Zealand), fires (in Australia), epidemics (Coronavirus), pestilence (South Africa), and now being lost (how long will we wander in the heat of NZ?) without our GPS unit. We are trying to navigate the issues of the current travel restrictions and our long-planned trip could change depending on the length and time of the virus. This may just present us with an opportunity to see different parts of our planet Earth. Stay tuned for the next installment!!
