Real Life: I drive on the wrong side of the Road

Well here it is for those of you who had asked me for a blog. I was hesitant at first because let’s be honest I live a pretty standard life. I wake up in the morning, go to work, get home do laundry la de da da but I LIVE IN NEW ZEALAND and DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD (thank you Raquel for pointing that out)! Each and every day is filled with an adventure here. Getting gas, a simple and easy task at home has turned into an ADVENTURE and something I try to avoid here in NZ.

Since I’ve lived in NZ I’ve only gotten gas twice! TWICE! And in case you don’t know, my job involves driving every day. That’s how much I despise getting gas. To be honest, I almost ran out of gas the second week I had my car. I was so busy focusing on “STAY LEFT,” I forgot about that minor detail. My first outing for gas I picked up my sister cause I figured she knew the ropes. I asked if there was anything different or tricky here and she said “oh yea, it’s annoying you have to hold up your gas card so they know you have one and they’ll turn on the pump…” Ok yea seems reasonable right? Well here I am standing at the pump waving my gas card at the attendee while he stares at me and eventually comes out to meet me. Show him my card and he looks confused and says “oh sweet as, thanks?” So alright good to go, fill up the tank, go inside to pay wait…. Didn’t hang up the pump right so run back out to adjust it and there’s a bus waiting behind me tooting his horn. Ahhhhh yea a little chaotic but everything worked. Later that night, ask my sister “hey who told you to show your card?” and her response, “oh I just do it!” lol Oh ok so hmmmmm so we don’t need to show our cards? Nope! Sweet as, thanks sis! Second outing…. Sister and I go to work together and she so kindly let me drive. Well, just my luck I needed gas. Find a mobil station, and hey there’s the diesel pump. Cool, pull up get out DON’T show my card and grab the pump to start filling. Ahhh yes, diesel all down the side of my car, just what I wanted thanks! Then I yell at my sister “HELP, I can’t get it in the hole.” Well sure enough, here you see two blondies from California trying to fill up at the Trucks and buses pump. I pull around and before I even get out here is a service guy to do it for me! Phew!

So enough about that, what drove me to finally start a blog was my trip to Blenheim. Left this morning from Wellington for a 30 min flight to Blenheim. Sure enough, smallest plane I’ve EVER been on. Who needs security when you just walk yourself right onto the runway and plane? Best part get this, I thought I was being all smart when I was given the option to request seats and I chose seat 2. I’m always stuck in the back of the plane so for once I was thinking I was lucky to get up front. Yep, basically flew the plane this morning while my luggage was strapped in the seat beside me. Then I pick up my rental car. The lady gave great directions, NOOOOoooootttttt! So here I am wondering around the parking lot pressing unlock in hopes of seeing a car light up. Well luckily I did no thanks to HERTZ.  For the most part, I’m finally starting to get use to this whole “stay left” thing and I love that in the rental cars they even have stickers that remind you. What I’m not use to is having my turn signal indicators on the right and windshield wipers on the left. So I spent the majority of the day being an asshole driver who didn’t signal and instead drove around the round abouts with the windshield wipers full blast on a beautiful and sunny day. Love life!