I wake and start the day with my first Letrozole tablet. How will it be? Will I notice anything right away? I guess we’ll see.

Susannah has to work and to make up time because of yesterday’s lengthy Oncology debacle so I set about getting the van ready. I can still only move slowly so everything takes longer than it should. Our projected departure time gets pushed out by a couple of hours. Now we will hit long weekend traffic. It gets later and later. At what point do we call it? Susannah asks. We don’t, I say emphatically, We are going today. I’ve already over exerted myself so I want to make sure it’s worth it.

We end up leaving around 2:30pm. The traffic isn’t too bad and the new motorway by-passing Warkworth shaves off 30 minutes, giving us a projected arrival time of 4:30pm. Not bad.

We accelerate past a logging truck that we’ve been stuck behind only to be met by a long line of stationary cars ahead. I look on my phone to find that there has been a multi vehicle crash at Waipu. We are stuck. Further updates come in as we crawl towards our destination. A 3-car collision on the highway. Serious Incident Squad investigates. Road closed. Detour in place since 2pm. Later. An elderly lady in her 70s has died at the scene.

This really makes me think about the randomness of it all and the unknown. Here am I freaking out about the possibility of death or the knowing of the how and when I might die. This poor lady was just in her car, perhaps going shopping, maybe visiting a friend, and then, in an instant, her life is over. Which is better? Easier? The knowing or the not knowing?  Once again I resolve to make the most of my time on this earth and try not to worry about the how and when. I think that’s the lesson for me.

After detouring, we finally arrive at Uretiti at about 5:30pm. Susannah is exhausted. We find a great spot and quickly set up before the rain starts. We will wake up tomorrow morning and have the full weekend at camp so it will be worth the drama of getting here.