Best laid plans

OK so it's the 8th March 2013 and according to my itinerary, I am in St Augustine embarking on Leg 1 of my croc adventure.  Sadly, something went wrong and instead I am in Auckland - Leg 1.1 - staying in a B&B awaiting the OK to travel.

All was fine until after we took off from Queenstown and I realised my ear was quite sore.  I had felt a twinge earlier, but didn't really think anything of it, so when we began our decent into Auckland I discovered that my ear was in fact very very sore and making some very odd noises.  I chewed on sweets and swallowed every few seconds, but it still hurt.

The guilty ear

Once on the ground, it settled again so I walked to the international airport and went through security.  All was good until I decided to get something to eat and I found I couldn't chew on one side without a lot of pain.  After a lot of deliberation, I went to the Air NZ desk and admitted my sore ear.  They called the airport paramedics who said that I should get it checked before flying.  The Air NZ folk changed my ticket for the next day and phoned around until I had somewhere to stay.

I needed to go to a Dr ASAP to try and get some medication started.  I hoped with 24hrs it would make a difference and I would fly tomorrow.  After dropping my bag at the motel, the waiting shuttle then dropped me off at the after hours Dr.  'Twas a dodgy neighbourhood to say the least!

The Dr was quick and a bit abrupt, and I didn't find myself liking him very much.  And even less so when I asked him if I could fly tomorrow.  He laughed and said it would be a week at least.

So I picked up my prescriptions and went back to my motel to sleep.  Next day I went back to the airport to change my tickets again.  This time they were put on hold until I had a confirmed date.  I then went to Info and asked them to find me somewhere to stay for 3 nights with possibility of longer.  After  20+ phone calls, they came up with a B&B in Devonport that had a vacancy and a price that I could pay.  The cheapest place up until then had been NZ$485 per night!!  Apparently there were several things on in Auckland making accommodation a bit of a premium.  Not a good time to need last minute accommodation.

The Peace & Plenty B&B

So I set off again to find this B&B.  I took the airport bus and then a ferry across to Devonport and walked 3-4 minutes to find myself standing in front of a beautiful, very old, huge, 2 storey house.  I was shown to my room.

Bliss!  So peaceful and comfortable.  I had a little balcony that I could sit out on and watch the birds (and hear them too, although this wasn't so pleasant at 7.15am following morning when 1000 of them decided to sing dawn chorus using megaphones).

I only had that room for 1 night and then moved downstairs to the biggest room in the house!  no more birds yelling in my ear, but sadly no more balcony either.

I went to another Dr on Friday and he agreed that I should wait until next week to fly.  I was disappointed, but I knew I didn't want to fly too soon.