Christchurch Monthly Drive

It was decided about a week beforehand to head up to Hanmer this month, with little support, and no opposition. Only three cars turned up for the drive, on a drizzly yukky morning - all three of the MkI variety - white, red, and burgandy.

Fortunately the weather got much better as we headed north and the sun came out. The drive to Hanmer provides some interesting road conditions, from windy and hilly to dead straight and flat as a pancake, to up and down enough to make young kids lose their guts. Fortunately there’s lots of opportunity to overtake, so we managed to keep together pretty well.

In Hanmer, we had lunch first, then decided to play some mini-golf on a newish course before dipping in the hotpools. The course was pretty good for mini-golf, and I’m somewhat embarrassingly proud to say I got the course’s high score. My name is on a whiteboard up there until someone beats 46 or lies about it. :)

Ahhhh, the hot pools. A popular retreat on Sundays. Too popular. The place was pretty crowded, to the point of not being able to find a place at the edge of some of the pools. It was a good opportunity to get to know each other a bit.

It also provided a good opportunity for Rex, me, and Nick’s girlfriend Alice, to watch Nick and Mike humbly request help from the staff. This is the Bonehead Award. Separately, Nick and Mike refused to read the directions on the computer controlled lockers. They managed to find a couple that somehow hadn’t locked properly, and threw their gear in. Of course, not having entered it on the computer, the computer thought those lockers were empty. This meant two things: 1 - They couldn’t retrieve their stuff, & 2 - someone else could be assigned that locker. While Nick and Mike, after swimming, waited by the lockers for a staff person, freezing their willies off no doubt, Alice, Rex, and I were watching from the warmth of the nearest pool. It did take several minutes for a staff person to arrive, and the guys had put their towels in the lockers, so they were cold quite a while. For a double bonehead, on opening the locker Mike had used, they discovered it wasn’t Mike’s gear in it, his stuff had been moved to above the lockers, easily able to have been spotted and retrieved without waiting around in the cold too long! Nick’s stuff was still in his locker. Mike is thankful that the people who did get assigned his locker put all his stuff above the lockers, including his cheque book (and wallet?).

Heh heh. The things guys do.

The drive back was fairly uneventful. Well, what can I say? Driving the ‘2 is always fun. The traffic picked up enormously around Amberley, and it was bumper to bumper all the way back to Christchurch.

Deb Webb