Help yourself, banks and cellphones

It’s not that I’m one of those terribly helpless blondes…but when you’ve just arrived in a new country, still trying to navigate the roads and generally find your way, and you get to the petrol station knowing that you have to administer your own fuel and the nozzle appears not to fit the hole, then I think it’s excusable to stand around piteously waiting until someone comes who can be preyed upon for assistance. In today’s case it was an older gentleman who came to my aid. Next time I will know to use a different pump which isn’t broken, and what buttons to push, and I will also have the heads-up on how to open the petrol flap without walking around the car twice. With a full petrol tank, the boys and I continued on our way to town, leaving Nick doing prep at the Lucas’s place. I needed a few personal items and was also curious as to the lay of the shops, and this was the first opportunity I had to go exploring the mundanities of town. Actually I love shopping so this was no chore. I got slightly lost so we ended up in town central, but that was okay as I needed to get to the bank and a Vodafone shop. That done, the map book came out again and I found the Warehouse and Countdown, two big stores across the road from each other. Countdown is a grocery store rather like SA’s Checkers, and the Warehouse is more like a Macro. Both had many interesting wares to examine. We were home for Miriam’s super risotto lunch (she feeds us very well). In the afternoon the boys helped Carl clean out the fish tank before we headed into town again, this time armed with passports so we could open a bank account. We are now banking with BNZ (Bank of New Zealand) and had excellent service from them. The boys made paper aeroplanes while waiting which were duly flown around the bank, aided by one of the bank consultants. We also got a cellphone contract on the go, with one of them decent phone thingies that has e-mail and internet…mobile Facebook, here we come! Called in at the Warehouse again where we found some fabulous liquorice all-sorts with huge raspberry-flavoured liquorice sticks. Yum. There are lots of snacks and chocolates which we shall need to try out over time.

(Above: Stafford Street in Timaru, the main shopping area. Cars are very good about stopping at zebra crossings for pedestrians).