Today we had to return Ismene so after some minor sorting out in the room, we went down to the garage and got busy with the dustpan and brush and wet wipes on the inside. As cleaning goes, she was pretty easy and it didn’t take us long. We weren’t required to wash the linens so that went back into the nice bag it had come in. As she was in good condition, and very clean when we picked her up, it didn’t take us long.
The outside was a different matter altogether! She was filthy, dead flies all over the bonnet and dusty as a dusty thing. We managed to find a car wash between the hotel and the Spaceships Drop off depot, and it was just opposite the shopping centre we were at yesterday. Putting her through a triple wash, Si drove her in and we sat and waited (with the windows tightly up) for the big rolling brushes to do their thing. They did a marvellous job and it was almost tooo easy!
The terms for dropping off the vehicles are with the same amount of fuel as you picked it up with. We didn’t even have to drive around. To get the needle down, it was a little over the mark of when we picked it up. Drop off was so simple and straightforward, we drove in, locked her up dropped the keys in a secure box and called an Uber.! No waiting around for them to inspect her and no paperwork it’s all done online.
We covered the grand total of 7300km on our adventures around New Zealand, and good old Ismene didn’t let us down once. Spaceships are the way forward.
Our Uber driver dropped us back at the hotel, just as it started to rain. The heavens opened and it rained for the rest of the day without a break. Which was a little bit annoying. However not as annoying as opening my emails to discover we’d been hit with a parking ticket when we were in Christchurch. Spaceships had paid the fine and we were charged an admin fee as well. It was a pain in the bum, because when we got to the car park, two of the three machines weren’t working, and there was a Que of people waiting to pay at the line working one.
We’d happily gone for lunch in th food market, and visited the quake museum and got back to the car before the ticket ran out. The anpr camera only picked up the entry and exit times of the vehicles, not the tickets. When we looked at the ticket we were just 1 minute and 14 seconds over the allocated 2 hour parking. I emailed Spaceships back and Natasha in customer services kindly offered to appeal it on our behalf as it was such a small amount over time. So fingers crossed that will be refunded. It’s no biggie if it isn’t, but frustrating because Si was so careful on the time front with everything.
Morg and Liv had stuff to do tonight, and as it was still tipping down, none of us really fancied going out and getting wet. Si and I just chilled out, and did some research for our next adventure to the Cook Islands.
Another quiet day, but productive, and we are back to shanks pony now Ismene has been returned.
Much love
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