A Long Day, A Detour... All Saved By Beer!

Rotorua, New Zealand

April 28, 2007
S 38.08.172
E 176.14.369

When we moved our tent we had approximately 2 inches of water pooling underneath, but luckily nothing broke through the tent. With Dustin’s help, we quickly moved our tent to higher ground. Luckily, Shelby and Dustin were fine in their tent…they didn’t have the flood problem since they originally set-up on higher ground.

The rain subsided shortly after we jumped back into the tent. I was a little upset, dreaming of a nice warm room with a bed and no water pooling underneath us, but then Marc reminded me about Erinmarie Forte and her family.

I received an email a couple weeks ago explaining that Erinmarie’s entire house flooded due to the tremendous storms the Northeastern States received this winter. The backyard had 10-12 feet of water, the garage 8 feet, and the house 6 feet. They lost several of their personal belongings including gifts for their twins who just celebrated their 1st birthday the day before the flood. I quickly realized the situation I was in; on vacation, traveling around the world with a little water on my tent was nothing to be upset about. I promised to quickly forget the whole incident and think good thoughts for Erinmarie and her family as I fell asleep to the drizzle.

When we awoke the rain had finally stopped. We planned on waking up early since we had a lot of ground to cover. Our plan was to get from 90-Mile Beach to Rotorua with a few stops along the way, approx 560 KM (350 miles).

After a few basic stops for water and bathroom breaks, we decided to cut over to the east coast to check out the town of Leigh. Shelby read about a small private brewery and wanted to check it out; I read about the charming town and thought the stop would be worthwhile. Since we’re on a Road Trip we figured what the Hell… lets go!

As we approached the coast the surroundings started to look familiar. Did we go this way before? Are we backtracking? We weren’t sure, but as soon as we reached the Smashed Pipi restaurant, a tell-tale sign; we knew we had been here before. I hate being stuck in a car all day, but I hate being lost even more! I told Marc to pull-over so we could figure out where the heck we were.

It appeared we missed the cutoff to Leigh, but a friendly lady gave us perfect directions to get back on track. She explained we needed to go back about 10KM, keep straight at the School Road and then follow a gravel road that lead to Leigh. Dustin repeated the directions three times, to make sure we had them correct.

We followed her directions to a tee, but when we eventually found ourselves on a dirt road in the middle of cow and sheep pastures with two options: 1) a dead-end road or 2) a road back to the town where the friendly lady gave us the original directions.

Marc decided we were lost and figured we might as well go see what was at the end of the dead-end. After a few miles we arrived at a small lake where a man was just climbing into a kayak; obviously going out for a quick paddle.

We decided to stop for a few minutes to stretch our legs and check out the lake. Dustin quickly jumped out of the truck to catch the man who was ready to head out on his kayak. When we asked for directions the Kiwi had to pause, obviously thinking, “What the Hell are these guys doing here?” He thought for a moment and then asked where we were from before giving us the directions. It was obvious we were lost since we found this very remote lake. When we told him California, he quickly asked where, we responded. It turns out the guy grew-up in Belmont, CA and moved to New Zealand 25 years ago. He explained he was also a plumber (like Dustin) and claimed he got stuck in NZ after getting married and having a few kids. After the pleasantries, and offering Dustin a job, he advised us the best way to get to Leigh.

The road the lady told us to continue straight on was where we needed to turn right. It was almost as if the directions the “friendly” lady provided were flipped around on purpose. Of course, I couldn’t see a Kiwi giving us bogus directions on purpose; she must have thought we were going to the lake!

We finally got back on the correct path, now a 3 hour detour, and made our way towards Leigh. We arrived at the Sawmill Café and quickly noticed it was closed, but the parking lot was full of cars. We decided to pull in anyway since the brewery was one of the primary reasons we headed to Leigh.

It turned out the Sawmill Brewery was open. We walked into the cottage and immediately spotted the brewery equipment. The taps were lined up against the wall with large stainless steel vats taking up the majority of the space in the middle. We instantly forgot about the lengthy detour we just endured. The Brewmaster, Peter Freckleton, and his wife were very friendly, almost welcoming us into their home.

We tried several of the microbrews on tap before deciding to purchase the first ever four-pack of cans. The couple had just purchased a machine to seal their beer in cans and produced their first four-pack a few minutes before we arrived… and then the power in the small town went out. We also bought a 2 liter bottle of Pale Ale for good measure.
With smiles on our faces, we hit the road again and we didn’t stop until we hit Rotorua—at least four hours later.

Note: As luck would have it… when we arrived in Rotorua the town was completely booked with marathon runners. We ended up throwing up our tent at the Holiday Park hoping we don’t flood tonight.