Travel With Betsy

By the way…..

….one last story……on things lost.

It’s a good one…..

The last leg of our New Zealand journey was in Queenstown……which I will tell you about in my next post. My friend, Lee, joined us there for the last part of our group travel experience. We spent about 4 days together there and then flew as a group to Sydney. On our way to the airport, we stopped in a small town called Arrowtown. It was really cute with lots of little shops and cafes to look at.

I highly recommend that you take a look here if you are in the area. In one of the small antique shops, Lee found an old map of New Zealand that she loved. Lee is a collector of old maps. This one was an old fashioned type that was printed on a fabric. You could open and close it by rolling it up on horizontal sticks attached at the top and bottom of the map.

It was nice…..and unique.

Lee called me into the shop to look at the map, and I agreed that it was something that she might like to have as a souvenir of our trip. She and I spent a bit of time evaluating the pros and cons of purchasing the map, carrying it on the next legs of the journey and then getting it home. It was a bit expensive. So, that was a consideration, too. Also, there would be lots of opportunity for the map to be lost or broken. It wasn’t heavy, but awkward to carry because of its length and shape. The sales woman in the shop encouraged her to buy it and assured her that she could package it up with bubble wrap so that it would be protected. It would still need to be carried separately from the rest of her luggage, but the packaging would protect it.

Sold!

So, for the rest of our time in Sydney and then Melbourne, Lee carried the map to each new place as we moved around. It was almost broken in the airport in Queenstown and then was almost left behind in the airport in Sydney. But, each time, the map was rescued, and we went on our way.

On Lee’s and my last 2 days in Melbourne, she and I rented a car and did a drive of the Great Ocean Road. We decided that we would take the train to Geelong, rent a car and then head out. Lee would be going home from here and I would be moving along to another apartment in Melbourne when I got back. So, we had to take our luggage with us. The people at Budget Rental Cars were so nice to come to the train station to pick us up.

But….we had some confusion on where to meet the driver. We walked around the outside of the station for quite awhile searching for the pick up point before we stopped at a bench and called Budget again to see where we were supposed to meet them. Just as we were doing that, the Budget person drove up and called out to Lee. He waved us in. We got in the car and went off to the rental office.

We were about halfway down the Great Ocean Road when Lee looked and me and said, “Do you see my map in the back?”

Nope. No map. We deduced that she had left it on the bench near the train station where we met the person from Budget.

I called the lost and found at the train station to see if anyone had turned in the map. They didn’t have it. I also called the police station. They were closed, which we both thought was quite odd…….

Lee was really disappointed. But, there was nothing to be done about it. The map was gone.

We finished our trip and went back to the train station the next day to get our train back to Melbourne. Before we boarded the train, Lee asked me if I thought she should ask one more time at the train station about her map. Why not? It wasn’t likely that they would have the map, but what did she have to lose?

In a few minutes, Lee was back……and, guess what she had in her hand?

The map.

Some kind person saw it sitting on the bench and brought it to the lost and found at the train station.   They were getting ready to send it on to the main station to see if someone would claim it when she made her inquiry.

What are the odds?!

This story gives me pause to think about how we touch people everyday without even knowing it.   This is not a life-changing event for Lee. But, having the map as a memory of her trip will probably bring up some nice memories long after it’s over. I’m guessing it will bring her joy….maybe the memory will come at some time when she really needs that in her life.

I commend this person for turning in the map even though he or she will never know the impact of the action. I am going to take a lesson here…..maybe we all should…..

Doing the right thing is always the right thing…..

So, this is the end….I hope……of the things lost and things found stories.

I’m glad this one had a good ending.

This entry was posted on March 27, 2018 at 9:01 am and is filed under Group Travel, New Zealand, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.