See the stars on the New Zealand flag? Do you know what they are?
It’s the Southern Cross, and I was quite thrilled last night to see it, embedded in a milkier Milky Way than we have back home.
Here was the view from my bed this morning.
And I made five new friends who followed me around until I went inside.
Today was super-boring because all we did was a second day of driving, this time from the west coast an hour west of Auckland, down to the south end of Lake Taupo to a little wide spot in the road called Turangi (TOO-ran-gee).
I really need to figure out what to do about my skin. It’s too thin. Even though I plaster it with layers of wool under a layer or two of wool, I’m one giant, shivering, whimpering goosebump. So all my grand plans to disappear into the mountains for three days with my new backpack and sleeping bag (rated to, uh, 30 degrees Fahrenheit) seem to have been rather misguided. Even stopping to fill up with gas saps every degree of spare warmth. My current craving for potato chips must go unfulfilled since it requires stepping out the front door. You’d think, staying at a place called Riverstone as I am, I might dash out the door at least to see the water, but it’s not going to happen. And the weather is forecast to get worse starting tomorrow. At least the fishermen are happy.
Anyway, the highlight of my day was stopping at a little cafe where I had the prettiest flat white.
After that, I left a drawing on the wall.
Yet another big day of driving tomorrow, probably to Wellington. Today Syd was at the helm for the whole drive so tomorrow I’ll take my turn.