So this morning we were greeted by the hostel owner and manager to tell us that someone over night had smashed a back window of the hire car, which was at the time parked in the secure car park of the hostel.
Fabulous!! Hoping it was just the result of some random midnight cricket game or other drunken shenanigans we ventured back to investigate. But no, someone had indeed broken into the car, stolen Alex’s and Ben’s Christmas presents, some little lip balm Christmas presents that Gem had got for the girls and her onyx ring from Thailand. (The same ring that had been bought as a replacement for another Onyx ring that had been stolen from one of our Thai hotel rooms).
So the police were called and the security footage reviewed. There was a particularly dodgy character seen entering the hostel early in the morning, and watching his movement around the hostel it seemed feasible that this was our man. And apparently he lived next door (also hostel type accommodation, but more of the vagrant type).
Of course as the camera footage did not actually show him breaking the window, the police could not really act on anything at this stage, stating that they would like to wait for fingerprints on the car.
In the meantime Duncan had been contacting Steve to see if Hugo was ready yet to be picked up. And hoorah!!!! He was
So as soon as the immediate issues with the police, car rental company and travel insurance had been dealt with we jumped in a taxi (a taxi was necessary because we were unable to drive our hire car, an excellent use of our money), and headed out to Botany Bay. Yes that is right, unlike so many convicts from Britain, Hugo was arriving in Botany Bay. It was almost as though his reputation had preceded him.
Despite the horrendously rude and obstructive reception woman, we soon had the keys for Hugo and were being directed over to the cage that contained our personal effect. These were bought out by the palette load and dumped in front of us. So we put the roof tent back on. Loosely repacked the back of the car and drove him out.
Our satisfaction that we had already booked Hugo in at the mechanics was reinforced as we started driving him. The brakes compared to the tiny little corolla that we had been driving were terrible, and then of course having the bonnet fly open on the freeway did not really help. It’s a laughing matter now of course, but being in the middle lane of a freeway with no vision, not quite so funny!!!!
So the day was turning a little bit into a comedy of errors when we finally arrived to meet Aaron at Mitchell Bros 4×4. Once again we said goodbye to Hugo and boarded the bus for our long journey back to the hostel.
It was on our bus trip back to the city centre that we realised that we had not eaten all day. This definitely warranted some comfort food for dinner and desert!!
