It was a friend's hen party and for some reason, out of the two minibuses available, I was selected to drive the one that was diesel, manual and about a 100 years old.
While driving up Bluff Hill to collect someone I seriously thought we were in danger of rolling back down; I couldn't take the thing out of first and even then it was struggling.
After a few stalls and several gear-grinding incidents, I finally got the hang of it. After six hours of ferrying these ladies between wineries in a now very rowdy bus, I was feeling pretty confident. Big mistake.
When we pulled into the Domino's carpark in Napier, I completely forgot how long the vehicle was, misjudged a turn and ended up hitting a parked car.
After uttering a few expletives, I got out of the van to check on the other vehicle. Turns out the mum had popped into the pizza shop quickly, leaving her two children securely locked in the car... which I had then pranged into leaving the 6-year-old in absolute hysterics.
"Mummy, mummy," she wailed.
"The man hit us."
I'm assuming she meant "van" but then I have recently had my hair cut rather short so who knows.
I felt awful; not only had I damaged someone else's property but I'd made their child cry!
After passing over my licence details and phone number, a comment was made about our Hits Facebook page so I was no longer just an anonymous driver either. Thankfully, the woman was extremely nice about the whole thing and can now tell people she knows exactly why I work for a radio station called "The Hits." -Sarah
*Don't miss Adam Green and Sarah van der Kley on The Hits Hawke's Bay from 6am to 9am Monday to Friday.
