Idk
Copyright© 2024 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 20
New Zealand extends from 34S to 47S, roughly as far south as Los Angeles north to Seattle. And since it’s surrounded by ocean, it rarely sees snow near sea level ... just like the U.S. West Coast. It’s really not all that near Antarctica. Christchurch may have a couple of snow days in a given year ... but never every year.
Since Mom and ‘the family’ was paying to ‘keep them out of the way,’ she bought them a car through Auto Trader ... well ... she paid through Auto Trader. The photo was fuzzy but it was cheap, had a 6 months warrantee and it was near the airport. Near the airport was more important than looks. The car proved to be reliable. Period.
The car had made it to the lodge. The lift had taken them to the cabin.
Guilt, cold and and a ‘great grey wall of snow’ storm had them driving back down the ‘two track’ to the 73 and on to Christchurch ... a provisioning run. They had stormed into the lodge and shouted, “We’re grocery shopping in Christchurch ... anyone want to go?”
No takers.
Grocery shopping for replacements for what they had eaten ... that was the guilt part.
The trip was interesting.
First they found the Christchurch Information Centre on High Street. There wasn’t an information rest stop outside of town.
The Centre had brochures, maps and suggestions, “You’re not going to find numbered streets like, say... 16th and Highland. You will find address numbers ... but crossing streets all have names.”
And...”Christchurch is like Jumble Sale ... north and south, east and west don’t really count, because the roads run every which away.”
And...”If you get lost, call. If you get really lost ask a policeman.”
Against all odds ... they found a supermarket. It wasn’t the one they had directions for but it was what they had. The place had their list on the shelves. They bought no meat.
Meat was by the wrapper on the sausage/beef for the spaghetti from the refrigerator.
Aberdeen ... they saw it on the way down but it was on the wrong side of the highway.
“We’ll come back.”
The first thing they saw on the way out of town was...
“McDonalds!”
Replete, they headed out. David spent REAL money at the butcher. 204 pounds of prime ‘cut while you watch’ beef and cased and smoked sausage. The butcher threw in 20 pounds of sliced bacon that was just past due date. ‘Aged’ he called it. They had a genuine load now. The meat was packed in ‘white styrofoam frozen fish shipping boxes’ with ice.
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