A stupid day to blog I realise that but I’ve been bursting at the seams to blog since someone mentioned they actually read them. Start how you want to carry on they say.
We are the first day into 2018 and we are up to our ears with pod people. And we are loving it and the Pod people are loving them! Brilliant. What a match!
It hasn’t been easy. There were a few low voltage melt downs. Val at the ASB Eftpos centre, apologies again but I knew the tears would make my Eftpos machine work at 4pm the Friday before Christmas and me not. Family – sorry! We pretty much moved into our renovated house the same day the Pods opened so that was never going to end well. If anyone mentioned Christmas I was going to go full voltage meltdown.
Anyway we were focused on what we were loving and suddenly we had a booking. Then two then 3 …surely someone’s playing jokes on us. I kept waiting for my channel manager to stuff up and give me a double booking but even when they came in slotted nicely next to each other I still didn’t trust it. It didn’t seem so long ago when I was walking around Lake Hood (shortly before we moved) and a friend Nicky Ed asked me who I was going to use for my channel manager. My what? If I have an IT department – she is it. Thank you Nicky. She will laugh at that but it’s true. She gave me such great advice that I wonder how things would be going if she handed on those pearls of experience. Sometimes you have a random person who can’t thank enough and Nicky you were literally my IT department.
I wonder if she realises.
We welcomed our very ‘firsts’ (real – not trialling the pods to check they weren’t awful): ‘Richard and Jenn’ whose review made me cry (not Eftpos machine cry, joy cry) and I carry your review close to me where ever I go. It was sooo cool and you didn’t even have blinds in yet. We were so nervous I wonder if you realised.. I thought I had it in control – hamper ‘tick’, swapped the sausage for crayfish which we had a surplus of ‘tick’, oh shoot – dust! Need a tea towel to cover the hamper to stop dust – bugger…. Pippa did a quick ‘I’ve got this mum’ run to the kitchen and her instructed ‘clean tea towel’ was not the one I envisaged. Through not at all obvious ventriloquist lip movement I said to Richie ‘make sure you bring the blue tea towel back’. Our marriage was being tested for the entire night where the ‘blue tea towel’ sat undeserved in the pod in its un-ironed, non-matching, non-natural colour tone; relaxed, not dirty but in a definitely handled state.. the marriage survived, ( there was never any question) however now Richie’s parting goodbye to take people up the hill now is a ‘see you soon, I’ll bring the tea towel back”
I wonder if they noticed.
And then the amazingly cool Justin and Natasha who had to deal with Richie suddenly ‘owning’ Facebook messages while on school camp (another ‘I’ve got this’ moment) even though it was not his department (he’s in the pool guy and head concierge department) and answering questions I’d already answered an hour earlier and who had also witnessed the EFTPOS meltdown and had got the instructions LOUD and CLEAR to not to direct people to the website until the blinking EFTPOS machine was working….who then ignored all that with a ‘Book through the website thanks” Am adding a ‘sic’ there. He even failed to comma. Justin and Natasha, I wonder if you noticed. But despite that J and N are forever known now as the (first) ones that GOT ENGAGED at Te Wepu.
Then followed our builders wedding photographer and the friends in the Piwakawaka who endured an electrical storm and didn’t get zapped in the hot tub and who also embraced ‘intrepid marshmallow toasting’….Hands on my head kind of stuff… We didn’t sleep a wink. Did you notice?
My brother Sam thinks he hit the jackpot while staying with us over Christmas. No room at the Inn so he opted for the Ruru for 5 nights. Have never seen him so relaxed and he took great photos from the Ruru while he had time out from ‘children and pre-Christmas hysteria’…He then became neighbours with Richie’s brother and wife who also happily joined in the pod trailing and stayed in the Kereru for a few nights while we looked after the cousins. I was so envious, I wonder if YOU realised. I think you did as after a wee bit of hint dropping, we finally got to stay in one ourselves! Waking up in the Kereru was my perfect camping experience. Being slightly high maintenance (it was even in my marriage vows to Richie) I don’t do bad beds (since trekking around Africa sleeping for 6 months on an inch of air), and no running water. This was awesome and now I totally get how much people are loving it.
Until next time,
Kate xx