AA Membership…… a worthwhile insurance.

Stevie: up for anything!

It was sizzling hot on the road between Napier and Wairoa the day I broke down. The logging trucks always hog that highway and no matter how defensively I drive, it’s heart stopping to round one of the precipitous bends and find a behemoth bearing down on you. I have a love/hate relationship with the Napier-Wairoa road thanks to our childhood trips to the beach. We had a big car — but no car is really big enough for nine children and a dog — and we towed a trailer with enough luggage for four weeks holiday. The very thought of those trips made me carsick before we’d even left home.

So, back to my breakdown. I was driving steadily, listening to a podcast, when four lights lit up on my dashboard and the oil thingee went into panic mode, flashing red/yellow. I can ignore one light but this was akin to a police car pulling me up. I limped on for about seven minutes until I reached Kotemaori and pulled up outside the school. ‘Pulled up’ sounds controlled, this wasn’t a controlled procedure. All steering and power had gone and I could scarcely get the car off the road.

I jumped out, grabbed my lab, Stevie, and walked into the school, always a haven in any community. The nine students were in the little pool, the two women running the oasis were welcoming and helpful. They gave Stevie water, offered me the use of the bathroom, gave me a cold drink and left me to get on with ringing the AA.

Of course, I didn’t have my membership card, I never imagined I’d need it, but the AA found me on their database. I had to make many calls due to the dodgy reception and eventually they arranged a tow. The tow truck had just left Wairoa bound for Napier and it would be four hours before he got back to me, but Stevie and I could catch a ride with him, if we wanted.

I didn’t want to wait four hours to get a ride to Wairoa as that didn’t really solve my problem so I rang one of my sons, who rang a mate who farmed in Kotemaori but lived in Mahia. I waited in the little playground with the children, who seemed oblivious to the shaking ground every time a logging truck thundered past and within twenty minutes the kind farmer arrived to see if he could help.

Then, my knight in shining armour, spoke to the towie as he drove past the school on his way to Napier and arranged where I’d leave my keys, (on the back tyre, of course), before loading my stuff into his farm vehicle, (dog, chilly bin, computer, etc. It was awful leaving my new Dyson vacuum cleaner)! He took me back up the road to a paddock where I had to wait for thirty minutes. Note for book lovers: never leave home without something to read.

Exactly thirty minutes later, the farmer arrived in a small plane. He swooped over my paddock several times to clear the sheep, before coming to a halt in front of Stevie and me. I’d like to say we soared off into the blue, but firstly, we had to bump up and down the grassy strip a few times as the sheep insisted on moving back.

The flight to Mahia was breathtaking. It’s panoramic scenery around that part of the world anyway; the Mohaka is majestic, the Wairoa river, which carves a big brown circle into the sea, was full of diving birds as they took advantage of the confusion of mingling waters. We weren’t very high and the little plane followed the coast all the way. The surf on Blacks Beach was up and little Waikokopu, nestled in Black’s armpit was still and sleepy. We rounded the hill and there was Opoutama and Māhia.

My pilot checked the tides on his phone, saw it was low tide and brought the plane down on the deserted beach. I was so grateful to be there and happy to wander up the beach to the baches, but he said it was no trouble to drive along the sand, and my extraordinary ride finished at the foot of my beach path. What an adventure.

Meanwhile, back at the garage, my car was very sick and it was all bad news. This particular model of Subaru has odd shaped pistons, they’re opposing or something, (who knew?). The engine would need to come out, it would be better to replace the engine than try to repair it because finding the damaged part was going to be difficult. But to top it all off, no one in Wairoa had time or resources to fix it. I would need to get my car towed, again, to Hastings and that would cost me $600.

So, here’s the thing. I was on the basic AA plan. I’d had my one tow and in hindsight, I should’ve had it towed home in the first place and paid the difference. An AA Plus membership would’ve taken me home, or they’d have put me up until I could be delivered home. ‘How much extra is the AA Plus,’ I asked in a sad voice. ‘Fifty dollars a year,’ they told me and I thought of all the wasteful fifty dollar treats I’d enjoyed over the years and wished I’d had the vision to spend more wisely.

My dealings with AA were efficient and fair. I had no one to blame but myself. I was thinking about them this morning as I cleaned out my fridge, that’s what you do when you have no car, and my phone rang. The manager at AA said they’d been considering my predicament. I’d been a member for twenty years and they were prepared to subsidise the cost of my tow to Hastings.

Everything seemed brighter. I’ve just updated my membership to AA Plus, and I’m more than happy to sacrifice ten cups of coffee a year for my newly established security

Landing on Mahia Beach