Traveling to Kilbirnie

Well it has not taken long and the traveling to and from Kilbirnie is getting a bit tedious…. Yes I know that the traffic in Auckland is way worse but it has been a long while since I had to travel anywhere in peak hour traffic.

The distance from our home to the Corps is about 75 kms and it has been taking us a good hour in the morning to get there and before the schools went back it was taking just as long to get home… Although now we are leaving at 2:30 to get back in time for the children it usually only takes 45 – 50 minutes …except on Fridays it would appear.

One of the very amusing things that I find is that (particularly along the Hutt “Motorway”) We end up in a slow moving and long queue of traffic that appears to have stopped for no reason … then just on the side of the road I spy a car that has been pulled over and everybody is having a good sticky beak at what is going on and then just a little bit further somebody else has pulled over to talk on the phone (good move that – instead of trying to juggle cell phone and diary and driving I have to say) but everybody is slowing down to have a good look at that too.

What is it in our nature that makes us want to slow down and experience vicariously somebody else’s misery or misfortune….. I have to say for me I would much rather just get on with what I am doing and avoid holding up all the other commuters and making them 10 mins later than see somebody getting a ticket for not indicating.. By the way I might get to work on time even…

I must admit I have applaud two van drivers the other morning on our way to Kilbirnie…. We were on our way to Kilbirnie on Friday morning in the first rain that we have had for a number of days. Three cars in front two vans failed to stop in time when the traffic suddenly came to a stop in front of them, I must admit that I was driving and we had a extremely difficult time stopping in time as well. But these two guys got out had a quick look at the damage and made the decision very quickly that they could both drive to the closest off ramp and take care of business there instead of holding up the traffic for the next 20 minutes….. Way to go guys…. (It was interesting to note that Perry actually recognized one of the guys from a Corps that we have visited recently… Go Nigel)