Appointments day in Otautahi

Friday 16 January

Friday was all about appointments - first up, drop the Pajero off for a service plus addition of a transmission cooler to assist on towing up & over the steeper hills. The dodgy blue boy racer Subaru was waiting for a WOF (could be a lonnnnggg wait!) so we got this two-tone rusty orange Lafesta as a courtesy car instead!

Secondly, dental appointment for Louis as some of his tooth fell out when Shadow head butted him on the beach back in December (delayed as not easy to get dental appointments when out on the road at the holiday season). I popped round the corner to post something and found some fun stores to browse - sadly Paper Bag Princess was closed so no retro clothes shopping, but I did like the camping themed gear in the pharmacy and the winner of the day was the gorgeous heritage tomatoes at the fruit & veg store - half the price of the boring old supermarket tomatoes (I bought two, they came to over a kg!)

Thirdly, after Louis had a swim and I’d cruised the op shops, our annual skin checks as a) we both have sun damage, b) we’re out in the kiwi sun more than most and c) my immunocompromised drugs make me super susceptible to skin cancers and melanoma. I was impressed that Luxury Nails could do my nails now for Christmas... thats over 11 months away! The parking guy required sending to Mark Dolan for his library of terrible parkers! I wanted to get the cocktail napkins from Red Cross for Abby! And I loved the red paranoid android comms box!

We got heaps done and kept going back at Banjo - repacking the Pajero in preparation for our next travel adventures, dumping our rubbish and recycling, sweeping out Banjo and finally rewarding ourselves with supper and a movie… “Heretic” starring an unhinged Hugh Grant in a terrible cardigan comparing religion to Monopoly - what’s not to love?!? 🎞️