As if things couldn't get worse...

Last Sunday, I, being tired from an early start and still a bit jet-lagged, decided to leave my rain jacket at home when I went to church. Why? Because it was a bit damp and needed to dry off. People make mistakes when they're tired.

I was nearly there when the rain started. Hoping to make it before it poured, I sped up a bit, then all of a sudden the bike died! No throttle, no lights, it just stopped working. I tried to start it again with no success, but after walking it down the street for a bit it decided to play nice. I was soaking by then, but at least I got a dry parking spot.

All was well, I drove to the restaurant we all went to lunch at with no trouble, then on the way home it cut out again and wouldn't start for anything! It was pouring again, but I was already soaked so couldn't get much wetter as I pushed the bike up the road to find someone who would repair it. This is not as hard as it sounds; because so many people own motorbikes, a surprising amount of shop owners know how to fix them, and every street has dozens of potential repair places. In this case, the first place we came to was a place that sold shrines, the guy just did repairs as a side occupation. He seemed to know what he was doing though, and it was fascinating to watch him at work; first he replaced the torn inner tube that I hadn't noticed, then he  began taking the bike apart until he found the problem that had caused it to stop: a busted dynamo. By the time he found it, numerous pieces of my bike were scattered on the ground and Dad and I couldn't work out what went where!

Working out the problem was only half the challenge; he didn't have a spare dynamo so he communicated to Dad via signs and gestures that he needed a lift to a store to get a new one. Amberly and I had to wait at the shrine shop while they were gone, but once they got back the guy had it installed in under 5 minutes. The new part wasn't an exact match: it was from a different model, but the guy who sold it told him how to adapt it; what wire needed to go where, etc. The moment of truth came when he plugged it in, stomped the kickstarter, the engine caught...

And the lights wouldn't work. The mechanic(?) had another look at the connections, spliced some wires and voila! Once the cover and other bits and bobs had been reassembled, the cub was purring better than it had before it broke! The inner tube, spare part and service cost 425,000 total; around $24. It had stopped raining while the bike was being repaired, but wouldn't you know it, it started up again almost as soon as we headed off! What an experience!

A family of two homes

Over the last three weeks, we had the longest trip so far, and funnily enough it was to NZ! We'd been looking forward to this one for a long time.

The flight left HCMC in the evening and arrived in Auckland early afternoon. When we stepped out othrough the airport doors, the cold hit us. In Vietnam, the average outside temperature is around 30 degrees Celsius. In NZ, it was less than 20. The others had thought to bring a jacket in their carry-on. I hadn't. Thankfully, it was only a short walk to the car that we would use while in Auckland. We were staying at Bucklands Beach, in a two-room motel unit. We didn't get much sleep during the flight, so by the time we went to have dinner at our grandparent's, I had been awake for 36 hours straight! It was a relief to collapse into a warm bed with an electric blanket in the evening.

It was in Auckland that we first started watching the America's Cup. Until it came down to just Team NZ and Oracle, we hadn't paid any attention to it at all. We watched eagerly as we approached match point, leaving Oracle in the dust, then had our confidence of a win shattered as Oracle won 8 races in a row, coming from nowhere to steal the cup. If it hadn't been for that 40 minute time limit, we would have taken it, but during several races, we were close to victory only to have the race cancelled, or a penalty called, and belatedly we would watch Oracle sail through the finish line first time after time.

We travelled around several areas of the North Island, having the holiday that we couldn't afford to have when we lived there! We stayed in motels and hired a car for three weeks, eating out and visiting sites along the way. We went to Auckland, Awakeri, Wellington and Rotorua, seeing friends and relatives everywhere we went, but the highlight of our trip was Papamoa!

We were the first to arrive, and the lack of campers surprised us. There were no tents and only one or two caravans, the occupants of which we didn't see. It was a ghost camp. Usually when camping at Papamoa, we would have a large tent, but this time we booked the Collin's lodge for the entire FAFF: Us, the Smiths, the Jeffcotes and the Mackenzies. It wasn't until the second day that everyone arrived, and Dale unfortunately couldn't make it due to an eye issue, but Michelle and the kids arrived just in time to see what would have been our winning boat race cancelled due to the time limit expiring.

Dinner that night was interesting; all the younger generation formed a "kid's council" of sorts to decide what we wanted to eat while the adults went out. Eventually, we decided to ask for $5 each which we would pool and send with representatives to 4 square to buy food. We had mac cheese, pizza, chips, and ice cream for dessert. Later that evening, after a swim in the spa, we found out that a deserted campground made an excellent manhunt arena (manhunt is really just hide and seek, but with a better name). I won both games, but it was a pyrrhic victory as to do so requires half an hour or so per game of sitting in a dark, uncomfortable spot hoping no-one finds you.

The last place we stayed before heading back to Vietnam was Wellington, and within an hour of our arrival, Dad managed to smash the right-hand taillight on a garage outside the bach we had booked. While in Wellington, we saw two of our relatives: our Uncle Glenn and his family and Uncle Michael and his family. We saw Glenn almost every day we were there, either at his place or out in the city.

Sadly, during the last couple of days I wasn't able to do a lot as I caught a cold, as could be expected when someone used to a hot environment goes suddenly to switching between near-freezing and room temperature. The last three mornings, I stayed home while the others toured the Beehive and the gardens. Still, I had a great three weeks, as did everyone, and we were sad to have to leave again, but leave we did, and what was even sadder was that we had to leave at 3 A.M.! We were half-asleep the entire plane trip and were barely conscious when we walked back through our front door. I didn't even make it to the shower, falling asleep with the light on waiting for the bathroom to be free. It was good to be back.