Polite
Police And The Cookie Time DC-3 Café
By
8.30am we'd left the motel and made our first stop at Mt. Ngauruhoe,
a volcanic mountain of 2,287 m. The thick cloud cover hid the peak
from our view, so we made ourselves a cuppa and waited for the clouds
to shift. A young and curious policeman stopped to enquire if we'd
broken down and needed any assistance. But we assured him everything
was OK. He was very friendly and chatty, so I jokingly said, "Can
you give me a lift to Palmerston North?" the town 250 km south where
Bryan was dropping me off.
"I'm
not going that far, but I can take you as far as Waiouru," he said,
referring to the next town about 50 km away.
"Don't
mind him," Bryan said, "He's from Australia."
"An
Aussie! Then he can walk!" the policeman said, with a wry grin on
his face.
Thankfully
Bryan allowed me back into his campervan, and we headed out again
just as a busload of camera-toting tourists emerged determined to
photograph the volcano which was still under thick cloud cover.
We stopped
at the The Cookie Time DC-3 Café for a snack.
Our
next stop was in Mangaweka. Stopping here was more of a novelty
than anything else. The novelty being a DC-3 plane which had chocolate
chip cookies painted all over it. The Cookie Time DC-3 Café had
been operating as a dine-in café for 14 years before it had its
great makeover in March 2000. Since then it had become quite a landmark
enticing travelling motorists to stop and grab a coffee or snack
on board.
Ferrets
And Loose Pants
Just
after midday we arrived at the bus depot in Palmerston North, where
Bryan and Joan dropped me off before continuing on to Wellington.
My bus wasn't due until 3.15pm, so I bought my bus ticket, left
my luggage in storage, then went looking for an Internet Café. I
only needed an hour to sort out my emails, so I returned to the
bus depot to have some lunch.
A
couple of the waiting passengers caught my attention, and both were
teenage boys.
One
of them was dressed in black and had a pet ferret on a leash! This
was a first for me. I'd never seen such a sight. The ferret was
just like a little puppy: walking to and fro, sitting up and watching
the passing people, crawling up to his master's leg and trying to
climb up. Eventually the young lad picked him up and cuddled him
much like you would any other pet.
The
other young guy was travelling with his girlfriend and his/her mum.
And it was his pants which caught my attention. They had slipped
off his hips and the belt line must've been below his bum. But they
wouldn't fall off! He kept checking that his red T-shirt was safely
covering his backside, so I'm sure this was a fashion statement
rather than a loose belt. And I spent ages trying to work out how
he'd managed to keep his pants up. The front of pants seemed to
sit high up around his waist, so I guessed that he'd somehow secured
the front of his pants either tightly around his waist or loosely
around his neck. The crotch of the pants had dropped around his
knees with the trouser legs folding plentifully around his ankles.
Boy, I thought. If he tried running dressed like that, he'd surely
fall after his first couple of steps.
Green
Dollar Queen
The
bus stopped at Masterton, where I changed buses and continued on
to Carterton. Helen Dew was waiting for me at the stop and drove
me to her home only seconds away.
Helen and
Alf Dew in their home of 44 years.
Helen
and Alf Dew have been involved with Green Dollars for the last 12
years. Helen is the mover and shaker, and Alf supports her with
whatever she does. In fact, Helen has even made an impact internationally.
This year she's been invited to go to Germany to speak at a Community
Currency Conference. And it was quickly apparent why.
"These
dolls," Helen said as she showed me 5 new dolls laid out on a table
top, "were old dolls I'd found with damaged clothing. I gave them
to one of our Green Dollar members who's washed their hair, cleaned
their faces and made a new set of clothes and shoes for them. Now
I can sell them at my garage sale."
And
later on she showed me the freshly baked bread that a neighbour
had brought her because she knew Helen was having a guest. This
was also a Green Dollar trade.
This
article is taken from the ebook,
Land of the LETS Green
Dollar
About
the book
|
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