Things lost…….
And, things found…….
………or not…..
We have lost a few things along the way as we have traveled in the “down under”.
It happens.
We have been gone for a month and have been moving from place to place very quickly, which can create lots of opportunity to misplace our belongings. Things get left behind in different accommodations, things fall out of pockets, get caught up in the laundry………. and sometimes things drop to the depths of a purse or a backpack never to be found again…..at least until we get to the next place and dump everything out. Every now and then we find something…..a hidden treasure….that we thought was lost for good.
It’s kind of like Christmas when we find things.
It makes me feel happy!
The first thing that was lost was my phone. This happened even before I left my local airport. My friends, Bob and Christine, were coming by to pick me up to take me to the airport. Before they came, I sat down in the lounge chair in my living room and took a call. As I was finishing up, they came to the door. I let them in, gathered my things and we were off!
When we got the airport, Bob said, “We will miss you.”
That was nice.
And, then, “How will we stay in touch while you are away?”
I said that I had my phone and I would be checking messages. They could call me if they wanted to. Then, I thought I would double check to be sure I had my phone.
No phone.
So, they kindly took me back home, and I got it. It was sitting right where I left it on the arm of my lounge chair. Ughh………This is when living in a small town pays off. The airport is about 15 minutes from my home. So, it wasn’t too much of a hardship. But……did I really need to leave my phone behind?
When we got the car in New Zealand, most of us lost track of our phones at least once. More than one time, we did a “phone check” before we started out in the car. I’m happy to say that all phones that were thought to be lost were found.
The next thing that was lost was a bit harder to deal with. We were back at our accommodation where we were recovering from a grueling car ride in the driving rain and fog from Martinborough to Wellington when Gene announced that his Passport was missing. We all searched high and low. Each of us took a turn looking through his clothing…..clean and dirty. We looked through his bags, his pockets and his bed. We all searched the van and then ran our fingers in between the cushions of each seat on the van and in the side pockets of the doors.
We didn’t find his Passport there, but we did find some other things from our trip, like extra Werthers caramel candies…which I was happy about….. and some things left behind by previous renters…..old food, paper, tissues…..you know, things like that. But….no Passport. After much searching and deliberation, we pronounced the old Passport gone for good.
Where did the Passport go? Who knows. The best we can figure is that it fell out of Gene’s pocket somewhere along the way when he pulled out his wallet. The Passport dilemma won Gene a flight to Auckland from Wellington where the US Embassy is located. There, he was able to get a brand new Passport. We all went on to Blenheim where Gene joined us later in the same evening.
On a lighter note, we have also lost some socks. It seems that in Australia and New Zealand…..just like in the United States….there is a place that we will never find where all of the lost socks go. Rose, another of my traveling companions, found a sock in the lint catcher of the dryer in one of the places we stayed. It was one of mine. I still don’t know where its mate is, so I am wearing it with another of my lone socks whose mate I have lost. What difference does it make if they don’t match?
We have also lost our patience as we have sorted through some of these losses…..and just sorted through traveling together in such close quarters. We have, after all, been tied together at the hip for several weeks now. Some days we were in the car for 8 hours and then in an Air B & B apartment or house after the drive. Other days, just together in the house. But, tied together we have been for the last several weeks. At this juncture, I’m happy to say that we have all found our patience.
I’m glad.
And…..just for fun I will tell you this little story. We also saw two men along the way who had lost their pants. I’m grateful that this was not the case with the men in our group. I’m not sure I could have stood the humor of this. But, when we stopped at a restaurant in Kaikoura for lunch, we saw a man in the line to order food who had lost the back of his pants. No kidding, the back of his pants had a slit right up to the waist. And, then in Christchurch we saw a man who had lost the front of his pants. He was holding them together, but there was not much left to the imagination. He had also lost his way and asked us for directions. I’m still thinking about him and hoping that he found his way to Pearce Street, wherever that might be.
Overall, I have to say that we have done pretty well. We have weathered our “losses” well and celebrated our “finds” even better. I think we will go home with at least as much as we came with, which makes me feel great! But, even better, we are all going home with a feeling of closer friendship for each other.
For, me, that’s the best part!
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Travel With Betsy 
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