October 27th, All Points Bulletin! Crime spree in Dargaville!

Late Sunday the weather broke and we were getting ready to give up the Presidential Suite and head for Kai Iwi lakes. It was a nice calm night and we were sitting out on the veranda having a snort. Cynthia is keeping a detailed journal (as in what we had for breakfast, what color socks, etc.) of our trip, and I was working on this blog on the off chance that I was ever going to see the internet again here.

 
About 10:45 two Budget rental vans came pulling in, and started asking questions about accommodations. I put them on to the owner’s cell number. A while later the owner showed up and the negotiations began. “What do we have here, four boys for rooms?” Four men he was corrected. One piped up: “We’re none of us married, but we don’t go that way!” They ended up with two rooms. We heard the owner arguing with the guys but couldn’t make out what was said.

 
The next morning when we woke up, we looked out the window and the place was swarming with police; two cops and a woman photographer taking pictures of the “wheelies” in the gravel. That’s what they call “peel-out” marks here. I went outside to see what all the commotion was about. 

Apparently during the night these fine upstanding citizens were held up at gunpoint and one of their vans stolen. Turns out it was full to the roof with brand new electric generators.
At 2:30 am during the night we were awakened by the fire sirens coming on summoning the volunteer Fire Brigade. It turns out that the cops found the van empty and burning a ways up the road. The arguing the night before was the men trying to sell the owner a new generator. The asking price started at $4700. When they were down to $1500, the owner figured there’s something fishy, and ended the discussions. We packed up and left.