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The ferry trip

A funny day. I have my three boys here for the holidays at the moment who are all under 11, and today we decided to get the ferry from Devonport to Auckland City to have lunch with my Partner, Ali. We drove to Devonport and I duly parked the car in the car park, tried to buy a ticket (the machine wasn't working), ran to get on the boat and off we went on the 11.15am ferry towards the Sky Tower and Downtown Auckland. A couple of hours later, well fed and watered, we arrived back at the ferry terminal in Auckland and waited for 20 minutes for the ferry back over the water (it's only a 15 minute trip). The ferry arrived, but this time it was a different type of boat and much busier. We hopped on, checking with the ferry man that the ferry was the right one and going to Devonport (as I had reservations), and off we went..

As we neared the Devonport ferry terminal, Sam, my eldest pipes up .. 'hey Dad, this doesn't look familiar at all. This isn't where we left the car'.. he was right.. it wasn't. My head did the usual 360 degree spin for 30 seconds as I tried to figure out what I had done, as I have been to the Devonport terminal a few times before so it wasn't as if I didn't know the place. Regardless of that, I walked over the the counter and asked whether we were in the right place ... 'Yes, this is Devonport Sir', 'Are you sure you caught the 11.15am from to Auckland this morning? and not the 11.25 from Bayswater or another from Northcote?'... Another 360 degree head spin - and then it dawned on me that we must have hopped on the 11.25am ferry from Bayswater (a 15 to 20 minute drive from Devonport). I rang a cab to get us back to where we started, and a 20 minute cab drive later, we were back at the car.

The experience left me with a couple of things - firstly, when I parked the car, I honestly did not register that we were not at Devonport, despite all the signs everywhere saying "Bayswater Marina" - on autopilot I just knew we had to get the ferry and that we were running out of time as the ferry was there ready to leave. I was SO focused on getting on the ferry and the fact that the ticket machine didn't work, that I missed everything else around me - this is part personal trait, but it does demonstrate that it is very easy to miss stuff if you barrel along without relaxing to view your surroundings!

Secondly, it was funny - what was to be a reasonably simple treat turned into something that the boys will remember for a long time, not just for the ferry ride, but also for the fact that we 'lost' the car. So often, we remember the things that happen to us that are out of the ordinary or surprising, rather than those that are run of the mill. Everything happens for a reason - in this case we had a blast, laughed a lot together and will no doubt laugh about it again.

You've got to laugh, particularly when my last note on this Blog was about the pace of life! Note to self, Peter - SLOW down..
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