Making Plans!

Hello! This blog is going to be dated Friday, but as far as I am concerned it is still Thursday night and I am planning that trip to Australia and New Zealand! Can hardly believe I am actually going! My flights are booked - with Emirates airline - from Glasgow via Dubai and Singapore to Melbourne, for Clare's wedding. That's classed as my stopover, as the ticket includes my flight to Auckland. I have a month in NZ during which time I hope to call on rellies, friends and the mum of one of our customers at the Co-op! He says I remind him of her, so of course I am curious to meet her! Apparently she runs an alternative therapies business, so that should be interesting!

A family photo taken on my last visit to NZ

I still have to book an internal flight in NZ - Auckland to Invercargill - but hopefully that will be done tomorrow! I started to do it today but when it came to paying online I forgot the credit card I was using was no longer valid - and could I find the uptodate one? After I came home from work tonight I started to search and found it very quickly - but as it's a new card it has to be activated, and it was too late to phone tonight! So, tomorrow I'll get that done and hope the flight I was looking at today still has a seat and still costs the same as it quoted today! Less would be even better of course!

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Now it's really Friday! I've been to bed and got up again! Credit card activated; flight from Auckland to Invercargill booked, and some emails sent. Now for the snailmail! I have to play with an itinerary from Invercargill back to Auckland. What fun! This is almost as enjoyable as the trip itself! The places I want to see! Wonder if I could do the equivalent of John o'Groats to Lands End, by doing Reinga to Bluff - well, the other way round. Bluff is just south of Invercargill, not the southernmost point of NZ, but then John o'Groats isn't the most northerly point of Britain! Last time Jan and I drove down the west coast of South Island in the pouring rain and mist, so saw nothing of the scenery - only waterfalls and gushing water from every rocky cleft you could imagine! That in itself was fantastic and actually driving through some of these falls was quite an experience, but this time I want to drive up the west coast so keep your fingers crossed for good weather. Queenstown, the view of Mount Cook from Lake Matheson, the glaciers, Pancake Rocks (!!!!!)....... Again in North Island I'll stick to the west side to see Taranaki or Mt. Egmont, the NZ Mt.Fuji, in particular. In 1999 Jan and I came down the east side.

Hope to be able to take a tour from Auckland to the north, Cape Reinga, as I didn't get that far last time. I'd also like to revisit Rotorua. That volcanic area was just amazing! I felt a couple of small earthquakes while we were there! What a strange sensation! The ground just rippled!

Anyway I fly back to Melbourne about the middle of May for Sally's wedding, and then home a few days after. Not sure how many of the rellies I'll get to see while I'm there, but hopefully a few at least! It's getting closer. Only a matter of weeks now!

Sweet dreams! Talk again soon.