Comfy old Rolls

You reach your goals in your comfy old Rolls

You reach your goals

Darryl ordered me a taxi to take me from the Regent to Hamurana Lodge, my accommodation for my birthday night. The driver turned out to be a Yorkshireman and I immediately picked up on his accent, asking him where he was from. He was from Doncaster, not that far from my hometown of Sheffield. I felt the need to tell him that during my youth I had been an infrequent visitor to the Doncaster Dome, the UK’s only split-level ice rink. I also told him that not even passing Grades 1 & 2 ice-skating could prepare you for trying to skate uphill between the different levels. I’m not entirely sure why I told him such banal information (or why I am repeating it here) and I spent the rest of the short trip looking out of the window quietly.

  

We turned off the main road into a driveway and slowly wound our way up through  to the Lodge. The place was massive, reminiscent of an English country mansion. I could see it as the setting for a real-life game of Cluedo or an Agatha Christie novel. As I got out of the taxi and collected my case Alex, one of my next hosts, greeted me. A friend in New York, TJ, had put me in touch with Alex before I had even started on my trip and they had offered me a place to stay when my travels brought me to New Zealand. When we were discussing possible dates I hadn’t mentioned it was my birthday until after we had settled on the date. As we walked up the front steps I was greeted by Sunny, the dog, and Fred, Alex’s other half. Greetings were exchanged (a handshake for Fred, a tummy rub for Sunny) and I was given a tour of the Lodge. The place was stunning.   

Birthday cards

Having been shown to my room I told Alex that I could do with freshening up as I hadn’t had a chance to shower following my rafting trip and I suspected I had a smell of river about me. He told me to take as long as I needed and that they would be in the bar downstairs whenever I was ready. I showered and changed, then pulled out the little stack of birthday cards I had been carrying round with me for a while. My sister and Mother had brought cards with them to Mexico at the start of October and Sara(h) Squared had brought cards to San Diego the previous month. I started with the card from my sister, as it seemed very bulky. Inside the card were another two cards and I recognised the handwriting straight away. They were from Gail, one from her and her husband, the other from my godson. All in all I had a six cards and I lined them up on the windowsill of my room. It was nice to have such great friends who managed to get birthday cards to me despite being on the opposite side of the world and travelling around.

I made my way downstairs to the bar. Fred was behind the bar, making some drinks for the other two guys who were there. I was introduced to them, Kai and Mark, and we all settled in at the bar. Alex gave Mark and Kai a brief introduction to my travels and then let me explain in more detail where I had been so far. Even after six months of travelling I could still recite the places I had stayed in order. I had also noticed that a lot of people would ask the same question, either stopping me part way through the list or waiting until the end to ask “What made you go to Shepherdstown, West Virginia?”.  Over a couple of glasses of wine at the bar we chatted about travel as it was clear that everyone had got about a bit (in the nice way) as they all worked or had worked in the travel industry. 

In your comfy old Rolls

My birthday wheels

Fred and Alex had booked a table at a Japanese place in town called Mr Yakitori for my birthday dinner so we finished our drinks and got ready to leave. As we congregated outside the Lodge, Fred asked if we wanted to drive in to town in the 1971 Rolls Royce that was parked just outside. There was a bit of a debate (the car had just come back from the garage having broken down mid trip a while ago) and the final decision was left to me, given it was my birthday. I figured it wasn’t every day that I would be given the chance of being driven to my birthday dinner in such a great car so I said yes please! I was allowed to sit in the passenger seat (I was milking the birthday thing) and we drove in to town. It was a remarkably smooth ride and I felt very special sat in the passenger seat, resisting the urge to wave out of the window like the Queen. Considering I was spending my birthday with people I had only met in person for the first time a few hours ago we all got on very well, the conversation flowing as freely as the lychee martinis and Japanese beers. After dinner we all piled back in to the Rolls, me getting the front seat again, for the trip back to the Lodge where we promptly filed into the bar for more drinks. Mark and Kai headed off to bed after just one drink as they were still suffering from a rather large night out the day before. Fred headed off too, leaving me and Alex to have a nightcap. Nightcap finished I headed up to my room where I answered a number of birthday messages from friends, old and new, before falling asleep.

The next morning I woke up and carried on answering the birthday messages that had come in while I was asleep. I got myself showered and dressed then headed off in search of coffee. Mark was also up and heading down from his room so we made our way to the dining room together. Fred joined us and coffee was soon served. Alex joined a little while later and we tucked in to the breakfast buffet that had been laid out for us. I attempted to eat my own body weight in freshly baked pastries.

I asked Mark what his plans for the day were. He told me that he was thinking of heading to the Polynesian Spa but that would require him calling in to see his parents who lived close by as he hadn’t packed any togs (which I was informed was local speak for a bathing costume). I asked him if he would be borrowing a bikini from his mother. We both set of laughing and it took us a while to regain our composure. I turned to ask him something and we both set off laughing again. It was one of those moments where the amount of laughter is entirely disproportionate to how amusing the comment that started it was but we couldn’t do anything to stop it. Trying to explain to a bemused Alex and Fred, who were sat across from us wondering what could be so funny as to cause us both to be in tears, didn’t help either. I thought that they were going to separate us, like naughty children. After breakfast Mark and Kai headed off, possibly to go collect a bikini, Fred went to do some work and Alex and I took the dog for a walk round the grounds before I collected my things and prepared to move on once again. I thanked Alex and Fred for giving me a truly memorable birthday experience  before Alex dropped me back in Rotorua where I was to be collected by my next host, Allan.

“You reach your goals in your comfy old Rolls” 
Lyrics from How can love survive? from the musical The Sound of Music