Day 90: Paihia to Auckland

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I took quite a psychological risk last night. I had verified on Friday night that when people played the DVD in Cap'n Bob's common room, it now really hurt my shoulder even if the piece didn't have drums. I'd finally gone out on Friday and begged them to turn it off, and they had.

Anyhow, I decided to write a little note and put it on the DVD explaining the situation. I did, and I signed it and put my room number.

Now, the last time I chose this method of trying to solve a problem was back in 1983, when I was staying with a bunch of other teenaged workers while doing a summer job. That attempt just got me laughed at by everyone else in the barracks. But something had to be done and I hoped that the guests at Cap'n Bob's were nicer than the students in that barracks.

They were -- they didn't play music, though someone evidently didn't like the note, as I found in the morning that it had been left at the front desk for the manager to see. I scooped it up again, crumpled it, and disposed of it in the wastebasket, though I don't know whether the manager had already seen it or not.

Someone else, not at Cap'n Bob's, had a wild party that went on until after midnight, at which time Cap'n Bob's manager called the cops. Fortunately the placement of my room shielded me from most of it. I slept, as usual since Cape Reinga, in four-hour chunks, waking up whenever I needed more codeine.

When I woke up just after 5 a.m., it didn't seem worthwhile to try to get back to sleep, so I packed everything. I showered and ate breakfast as soon as I could do so without waking the household.

It was a good thing I did, as the taxi, booked for 9:15, arrived about 8:45. The driver asked if I'd mind leaving early. I didn't, though it was a bit of a scramble. I asked him to go back, thinking there had been a key deposit -- after all, there had been for the last three hostels -- but there hadn't been. So I suppose he earned his $7.

There was another cruise ship in port, so the Artisan Market was back. I stored my luggage at the visitors' center and browsed the Market, though I didn't buy anything else. I went to the cafe next to the visitors' center and bought a corn fritter for breakfast. The visitors' center claimed to have free wi-fi, but the router was misconfigured and I only managed to connect to it once.

The bus was a bit late, but I got a good seat when it came, four back and on the left. Travel hurt, but slightly less than I had expected. Nevertheless, when it was time to take my next dose of codeine, I took a full tablet rather than 2/3rds of a tablet. And I only took three pictures, even with Kevan's camera; it hurt too much to turn and move as I needed to.

I had misremembered the place to meet Kevan, so he eventually had to park and look for me. Meantime, I had already mistaken another person for him; fortunately that man admitted that he was not Kevan Moran. Once Kevan finally found me, everything went well. He took me to a local swimming complex and I soothed my shoulder and lungs in their hot tub and steam room. I would have swum as well, but the main pool could only be accessed by ladders.

I think the shoulder may be starting to get better. It's itching, which is more than it has been doing, and I'm getting little crawling spikes of pain which suggest abused nerves healing themselves. The "vampire's kiss" is definitely the result of bleeding under the skin. Of course, as Kevan points out, all bruising is bleeding under the skin, but it looks as though blood may actually have flowed under the skin along the lines of the pin and plate.

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