Auckland SUCKED.
First, I lose my passport. But then I find it, whew. Then Mel almost gets hit by a truck crossing a street. But they stop in time, whew. Then $3000 in cash and my credit card are stolen!!!! Our hotel room didn't have a safe, so we put our envelope of cash and a spare credit card underneath the couch seat when we left the room for breakfast. In a very uncharacteristic move on my part, I forgot to retrieve it before we left the hotel!
We realized the mistake about 30 minutes down the road and called the hotel, but they claim they couldn't find it in the room. The room was cleaned just after we checked out at 10:00am, so either the cleaning crew stole it or the guy at the front desk, whom I called and explained the situation to, stole it. So far the hotel isn't being too helpful so we've filed a police report, but I don't know what to expect.
I'm having a real tough time with this. Fortunately we've booked all our main activities and accomodations, so this was just our food and spending money, but it still represents about a years worth of saving. And since we basically emptied our savings account to finance the trip, we're going to have to dip back into credit to finish the vacation. It sucks, but I'm trying not to let it ruin the trip.
Lessons learned:
- Carry traveler's cheques, exchange them for cash in increments.
- Carry travel insurance, even if it seems like a waste.
- Have your travel money surgically grafted to your skin so you can't leave it in a friggin couch like a retard.
The kicker is that its 24 hours later and I still can't find a way to call 5th 3rd to report the card stolen. My calling card doesn't seem to work. Ug!
I'm trying hard to stay positive in the face of a very rough vacation so far. Fortuantely Coromandel seems to be treating us better, I'll have some good pics to post when we get to Christchurch. Pray for us... we need some good mojo!!