11am Friday, March 17, 2006 Lower Hutt

We were supposed to be in Queenstown on the South Island today, but instead we’re still in Lower Hutt, a suburb of Wellington. More on that in a bit.

The drive from New Plymouth to Lower Hutt was quite nice. We stopped twice to get out of the car and stretch our legs. We entered the Lower Hutt area just before rush hour, and would have been snug in a motel by 5pm if we hadn’t missed a turn. It took quite a while to get back on track, so Simone had to navigate into Lower Hutt during full traffic which was quite stressful.

A view of Kapiti Island:


It also took a while to find a motel. The first three we stopped at were full. Apparently that is quite common, even in the off-season. One of the motel owners called around and found a room for us at the Fern Hill Motor Lodge. We settled in there, then drove into Petone (an area of Lower Hutt that’s right on the harbour) for dinner at Valentine’s.

The best thing about Valentine’s wasn’t the food – it was the people-watching. We had to wait in the lounge until a table was ready. There were a few other groups waiting in the lounge as well, including a large Maori family. One of the women had traditional tattoos on her lips and chin. Another group waiting in the lounge were, well, fashionable in the 1981 sense and were “beautiful on the inside”. One of the women had used a feat of bra engineering to lever her breasts up to an unnatural height so they could hang alluringly out of her blouse.

After dinner both Mom and I were exhausted so we went back to the hotel and straight to bed. Mom could barely breathe and only slept about an hour that night. In the morning she stated “I want to see the doctor”, which was a surprise because earlier she’d stubbornly resisted any suggestions to see a doctor.

Simone and Bruce went for a run then had breakfast, then drove Mom to a clinic. The clinic didn’t accept foreign patients so they directed us to Emergency at Hutt Hospital. They took some blood tests at 11am and the results were back within an hour but Mom had to wait until 3pm to see a doctor. The doctor ordered a chest x-ray and another blood test, and at 6pm admitted Mom to hospital. He thought that Mom might have a pulmonary embolism as well as a severe viral chest infection.

Mom in Emergency, waiting for the doctor:


Back at the motel I phoned Mom’s travel insurance company to update them on her condition. With Bruce’s help I also phoned Air New Zealand and our travel agent to see if we could cancel or postpone our flights to Queenstown the next morning, but it was too late to make changes.

Simone and Bruce went to dinner at Regan’s where they got to meet Regan’s new wife Megan. Aunty Rose was at dinner as well. I stayed home and had dinner at the motel because I had developed a head cold and didn’t want to spread it around.

We got up early to check out of the motel, then visited Mom at the hospital. She was looking and feeling much better. A swarm of doctors came around at 11am and explained that she did not have a pulmonary embolism. However, she did have a very bad chest infection and needed to stay in hospital for one or two more days in order to complete a course of intravenous antibiotics.

Mom after a night in hospital:


From the hospital we drove to Aunty Rose’s. She had departed for New Plymouth to attend an important school celebration and planned to be away for a few days. She left the key out and instructions to make ourselves at home. I packed an overnight bag for Mom which we dropped off at the hospital, then Simone and Bruce departed for Napier.

I was absolutely knackered so I went to bed at 2pm. I slept until damn near 7pm. When I woke up I wasn’t feeling very hungry but forced myself to walk down to the local chippy where I ordered fish and chips for one person. They gave me two pieces of fish and about a pound of chips.

I ate some fish and chips and watched a bit of TV then went to bed. I slept straight through until 10am. I still have the head cold but at least I’m not coughing up a lung anymore. I don’t have much energy so I’ll probably walk to the Internet café and post this, come back to Aunty Rose’s for a nap, then catch a cab to the hospital to see Mom this afternoon.

Mom will likely be discharged tomorrow. We’ll stay at Aunty Rose’s until we’re both feeling up to travelling again. We will try to see some of the South Island. The original plan was to be in Queenstown until Tuesday, move on to Dunedin for a couple of days, and then move on to Christchurch. We’ll probably catch the ferry to Picton and train to Christchurch and carry on with our itinerary from there.