After finally making it to Mum’s the night before, I was hoping Day 3 would be a little less eventful.
It wasn’t.
The first job of the morning was sorting out the hire car saga. If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll know our shiny new BYD had developed a personality of its own, randomly waking itself up and turning the motor on whenever it felt like it. After an evening of phone calls, Avis had sent the AA out who spent nearly an hour scratching their heads before deciding the best solution was simply… “give it back.”
Fair enough.
Before we could swap cars though, Lia had something much more important on the agenda—Parkrun.
Lia had researched and found a local one in Sloughbottom, only a few minutes from Mum’s place. But first, the car, it goes from turning itself on to sitting with this message on the screen for 20+ mins before we could drive it!
While Lia headed off to tackle 5 km, I wandered over to ASDA to gather breakfast supplies.My shopping priorities were exactly what you’d expect…
✔️ Yoghurt
✔️ Fresh raspberries, blackberries and blueberries
✔️ A couple of Red Bulls
A perfectly balanced breakfast if you ask me.
By the time Parkrun finished it was already around 22–23°C and surprisingly humid. I’m still not entirely sure how Lia managed to walk 5 km in that heat, and jetlaged, but she did—and even better, she earned a few milestones she needed, picking up five Parkrun badges in one morning.
Achievement unlocked.
With one mission complete, it was time for Hire Car: Round Two.
Back to Norwich Airport we went to swap the BYD for another one. Thankfully the replacement behaved itself, although I have to admit these cars love beeping at absolutely everything. Open a door? Beep. Look at it funny? Probably another beep.
To make matters even more entertaining, the replacement hadn’t exactly had the VIP valet treatment. It still contained someone else’s rubbish, which wasn’t quite the premium hire car experience I was expecting.
Never mind… onwards!
With transport sorted, Lia and I headed out to Longwater for a quick supermarket run. Sainsbury’s, M&S and Boots all got a visit before we escaped the shopping centre and headed off in search of something I’d been wanting to try for years.
Raw milk.
We found a local farm selling it, grabbed a couple of one-litre bottles and, naturally, sampled it straight away.
Verdict? Actually… really nice.
From there we headed to Wymondham, one of those lovely Norfolk market towns that seems to have character around every corner.
Poor Lia probably wondered why I kept excitedly pointing things out every few minutes.
“Look! A proper red phone box!”
“Oh… a stone cottage!”
“And another old post box!”
“Ooooh… pheasants!”
I sometimes forget that things I’ve grown up seeing in the UK are completely new to someone visiting from New Zealand. It made me notice all those little details again as well.
After wandering around for a while we eventually headed back to Mum’s for a much quieter afternoon.
Mum's neighbours had kindly cooked us an Indian meal, so the evening was spent chatting, swapping old family stories and sitting out in Mum’s conservatory watching the birds come and go in the garden.
After nearly two days of airports, flights and hire car drama, it was exactly the relaxing evening we both needed.
Tomorrow…
The real UK road trip finally begins.
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