Jetting Off Again

The taxi arrived at the bungalow in good time. The weather was good for the wait at the coach station. The coach made good time to Heathrow.
The new automated check-in nearly blew our minds. Once the machine had our ticket details it spewed out piles of paper (Three boarding passes each and two suitecase labels.) Another machine snatched our cases and threw them in to the baggage area. Security was the usual slow shunt in and the walk through without a belt on my trousers. But within half an hour of arriving at the airport we were air-side. We liked the Christmas trees. In fact, terminal 3 is quite a pleasant place.
There is now a proper English restuarant in the departure area and we enjoyed a good meal.

Not long after food we were airborn over the London lights.

After a couple of films and some food it was time for lights out and a reasonable sleep as we sped towards Singapore.

Changi is a fascinating airport and the time went quickly. They always put on a good Christmas display.

 Once again it was night when we left the lights of the airport.

By Australia it was getting lighter and we could see the wilderness below which gave way to well organised, cultivated field as we approached Melbourne. Joni and Fiona had booked us into a lounge. It was great to have a shave and a shower and feel quite human again and to enjoy a drink which was not swaying about at 500 mph.

New Zealand was less than 3 hours further and its coast was soon in sight.

It is a remarkable achievement by the airline that when we got to the Auckland baggage carrousel after three flights and thousands of miles our two suitcases were happily making the round tour as they waited for us.

Sally and Zoe were waiting for us and whisked us away to meet the rest of the family. Emily and Zoe have really grown in height but also in maturity. Then we  enjoyed a good nights sleep.

The next day was Saturday and we were soon down at St Heliers to breakfast at the bakery and see 'Bubbles' do his retreiving tricks on the beach.

 Shopping at Pak n' Save followed when we joined in with Saturday mass of shoppers.
Sunday was an interesting day when we went to see the Auckland Girls' Choir annual prize giving. It was good to see Zoe being part of this and to enjoy the voices of the girls.

After the presentation there was a well stocked buffet. The founder and director, Mrs.Leonie Lawson MNZM who is 89, sent a lot time talking to me and Irene as we enjoyed the food.

On Monday the two of us had our own wander along the beach and collected some supplies.

On the following morning Tim contacted us from the UK to ask how people were reacting to the disaster following the erruption of the volcano on White Island. A large number of tourist were killed and seriously injured. That day we had decided to go for a walk on to the 'Spit'. In fact, we were commanded to leave the house by 11 am and not return until 3 pm. Zoe was having her girl friends round. The Spit is a geographical feature that almost connects up the two distant shores of the Tamaki river.

The first beautiful feature is the tree.

Over the top of the hill is a view of the shore leading to the Spit. The tide was well out.

There are many different plants growing along the shore line.

Among them is the New Zealand Christmas tree (Pohutukawa)

There is a good view of Rangitoto.

I stopped walking along the Spit once I came across puddles in the gravel. At this point you can almost imagine paddling across the Tamaki river to the opposite shore. However, the channel is deep enough to allow the Waiheke Island vehicle ferries to put in to the John 3:16 port.

Two days later, together with Zoe, we were on our way to Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. We were to spend a long weekend with our son Joni and his wife Fiona. They live in quite a smart apartment on the eight floor looking over the wooded hills which are a backdrop to the city.

 Having settled in we went for a walk to Oriental Bay and the evening sun was just catching the sea fountain.

 The next day we headed down to Te Papa (This is the museum of New Zealand). On the way we passed by the 'Beehive'. This New Zealand's parliament building.

Wellington is an arty city and on the quay are various art pieces and also poetry.

Joni works in an office overlooking the sea.

The main exhibition was 'Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War'. The larger than life  models were very impressive.

 One poigniant exhibit was a Maori prayer book that had prevented a bullet from killing the soldier who carried it. The bullet had stopped at a certain piece of scripture.

 We then marvelled at the art work. A double very high gallery was taken up by thousands of strings on which were fastened thousand of small rectangles of coloured plastic. The work was called 'Finale: Bouquet'

 Another major piece was a rainbow of colour and smells.

 Also fascinating was the woven cylinders.

We sat in the apartment amazed by the daring of the abseiling window cleaners.

 The following day we walked down to the start of the cable car. It is fact a large carriage on wheels pulled up by a winding engine at the top.
Our first visit at the top was to a perfumerer.

 And then we walked into the gardens. Firstly, there was posing on the tree top balcony.

 Then we walked by strange plant life and the usual cacti.

 Fiona dared to pose in the frame.

We sat for lunch in the garden cafe. This was not your usual garden variety. As soon as you sat down cups and bottles of cold water were placed in front of you. And the food was delicious. I had crepes (English pancakes) with bacon, bananas and maple syrup.

After this, while Zoe and Joni went back to get the car, the remaining three of us had a walk into the glass house and the Lady Norwood tropical water lily house.

Then we went to look at the beautiful roses in the Lady Norwood Rose Garden.

 Finally we had a walk up to the herb garden by the wire sculptures of NZ trees.

 From the look-out at the top we could just make out Joni and Fiona's apartment building.

 Next we were driven along the shore line that can be seen on the picture above. We stopped to view a couple of art galleries and finally reached Eastbourne.

Here we called in for refreshments.

 On the way back Joni posed for a sunny picture just moments before he plunged into the sea to make a daring rescue.

 Before boarding our plane we were taken to Fidels on Cuba Street for breakfast. I had waffles with bacon, banana and syrup. After this there was time to explore the street. I was amazed by the architecture. During the middle of the second world war a 'Peoples Palace' for trekkers had been built.

 The next item of interest was the bucket fountain.

The walk ended by crossing at 'Wellington's Rainbow' crossing.

 That was the end of our time in Wellington and there followes the usual airport wait and the short flight home.

 On Tuesday we walked down to St Heliers to collect books from the library. It was exactly one week from the tradegy on White Island. A minutes silence was observed for the victims. The last couple of days have been spent in the house, walking the dog, taking Emily to school and generally watching rain of Noah's Ark proportions.