although it was for really sad reasons, namely my great aunt's funeral, i got to stay at the worlds most 1970s motel - the continental - in whangarei this weekend past. highlights included:

1. the decor - part garage, part rumpus room, part kitchen with a hint of industrial tiki bar.
2. the staff - who walk you to your room to show you how to turn on lights
3. the beds, hard like rock but with 'lectric blankets. which was right up my alley.
4. my favourite kind of shower head.
i have less charitable things to say about cobb and co whangarei. so i'll keep them to myself but in a nutshell great people shit food. but what do you do? whangarei, despite its proximity to the largest NZ city hasn't figured out that tourists over a long weekend want to eat somewhere other than mcdonalds. so everywhere was closed. plus at cobb and co i struggled to do the kids maze activity sheet on the back of the placemat. shame.

on the flipside, i would say that i have never been happier than in the car park of kamo mcdonalds where i ate a quarter pounder at four in the afternoon - my first food of the day. there was a mix up and funerals go long and evidently some funerals longer than other and i was starving. i hated myself a little. but then this was outweighed by the happiness i felt. its over now and i will try not to repeat it.

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my aunt, who was the reason for this trip, was one amazing lady. she remembered me and my brother and sister. and i mean remember as in recognise when we walked in a room. and believe me this is no average task as she had like a million grandchildren of her own and we have around 30 cousins to add in to the memory bank.

my dad thought she was aces and she had a lovely smile.

apparently she was following the gospel and living a mormon lifestyle. this was news to me. plus she drank tea in vast quantities. so i never put two and two together.

she was like a minature version of my nana. and was very nice to my childhood dog, aka the greatest dog to ever walk god's green earth.

what else? she was not so familiar with technology(she was basically raised in the bush) and once in the early 1990s she rang up my mum crying because she thought my dad was ignoring her. it turned out that she was getting his work answer phone and she was confused because she thought he was answering the phone but not answering her direct questions.

she was amazing.