Dear Family and Friends,

 

With growing concerns for family welfare, I have decided to return home for a while. So this will be the last of my blogs for a while. Booking my flights with less than a weeks notice from Samoa was not as difficult as I imagined. Flights from Samoa to Auckland, 4.25 hours, Auckland to Singapore, about 11 hours and Singapore to London about 14 hours with a 22 hour stop over in Auckland. During this time the sleep and meal routine was in total chaos! By the time I had arrived I had eaten 2 dinners, 2 breakfasts within 7 hours and a lunch, had I remained in one time zone this would have been through the night. The service on both Air new Zealand and Air Singapore is very good, so surprisingly are the meals. The later even has a bit more leg more in economy, thank heavens. It has taken many days to ‘normalise’ and not feel as though hit with a sledge hammer. Unfortunately being cooped up in a metal tube with hundreds of coughing and spluttering passengers gave me a dose of ‘flight flu’!

 

Back to Auckland, I was a little too tired to do much but I did manage to take the bus to the city centre, walk a little and visit their art museum before totally crashing. It felt most strange to have always wanted to visit NZ and be leaving so soon. To step into New Zealand is to step into a second skin, the appearance of the buildings, shops, (with many international and familiar brands) and culture (art galleries, theatre, Cats was playing at the Civic Theatre), even Albert Park had a brooding statue of Queen Victoria to commemorate her tenure as sovereign, speak of the mother culture. The street signs are a little reminiscent of America, the houses a little New England in their boarded style, but in all another Bristol, Brighton or Bournemouth.

 

So here are a few photos of Auckland.

 

Alan has sailed to Niuatoputapu and onto Neafu in Tonga where he is with friends and familiar boats. The weather has not been much fun so a tough call for him. We are hoping to find crew to take Jenny onto New Zealand. I hope to report second hand from time to time on our progress with the hope that we can return in the New Year.

 

All our best,

 

Lynne and Alan