I have recaptured my keyboard after a
long break and having achieved the cherished dream of getting to see
all the family living in New Zealand. Apologies for the break
in transmission but it was worth it.
After a longish journey out to Auckland
via London, I was horribly tired and jet-lagged for well over a week
after getting there. The daughters had hatched lots of plans
for my stay, which were crammed in around school and
nursery drop offs, Mainly Music (music & dancing for toddlers held in churches) a bewildering clutch of meetings, greetings and
tearful goodbyes, lost shoes, lunch boxes and after-school
activities. I couldn't keep up! In the end it seemed best to just
play follow-my-leader and try to slot into what, by Cretan standards,
was a very full regime.
The standard of living in Auckland is
very high. That is not to say that there aren't places where people
find it hard to keep up with it or that poverty doesn't exist, but I
found the cafes, restaurants and shops all very full and busy whilst
the evidence of very heavy traffic, industry and commerce buzzing in
a way I haven't seen it for DECADES in the UK or in Greece, quite
encouraging. New Zealand is a "positively can do" country and everything seems
possible.
Early in my stay, a short boat trip from Devonport quay
on the North Shore got us to Waihiki Island in less than an hour and
it was like arriving at a holiday destination with brighter sunshine
than on the coast and lots of pretty vineyards in evidence. We had a
table booked at Cable Bay Vineyard and in the fine weather, it was
absolutely packed. People from the bar had spilled out onto
stretch-out bean bags on the bright green lawns outside. At the same time, the more formal restaurant was fully booked while young waiting staff were racing to get everyone beautifully served. It was a lovely place for a
special celebration and I am not surprised that many people choose
Waihiki vineyards as wedding venues. I pulled out my sunhat and made
sure that I had some sunscreen because it is very easy to get badly
burned in NZ even on a cloudy day … through holes in the ozone layer.
We had a birthday party for daughter Kate which
fell on a Saturday, and it was good to meet up with lots of her
friends and neighbours around a firepit with drinks and
nibbles. It was planned to be a simple format but still seemed to take an enormous amount of energy and
shifting about in preparation.
As I had never had a chance to meet the youngest grandson, Spencer, it was great to be there for his birthday
too. He had no less than three celebrations! In the morning, we all met
at the Sky Tower and were taken up in the high speed lift to one
viewing platform where a noticeboard informed us that bungee jumpers
would be planning to take a dive in the next 10 minutes. I was not quick enough to catch a photo of them as they flashed past the
windows to a target on the pavement down at street level. I certainly wasn't
tempted to have a go! We sat down for lovely coffee and special ice cream "with sprinkles". After Spencer's nap, there was a tea party
with his cousins as a dress rehearsal for the Dinosaur party planned
for the following Saturday! Needless to say the big event was wonderful and
noisy in equal measures with lots of tears, tantrums and smiles –
but great to be with them and take photos of musical statues, whacking a pinata, an
awesome cake, dinosaur sandwiches (shapes, not content!) - darling daughter looked exhausted after all this partying!
Each weekend seemed to be filled with barbecues and parties, we spent a lovely day while the weather was good down at the beach making sandcastles and I got to know the kindergarden and school quite well. On the Thursday before Easter, I was invited to "Grandparents Day". This was interesting: we looked at all our grandchildren's work and projects, were shown round the classroom, played games together and ended up having "Morning Tea" in the school hall rounded off by two Maori songs and a blessing. It was good to be there and I felt sorry for children who had no grandparents present on the morning. My stay finished at Easter weekend while we flew down to Wellington to meet up with more friends and filled the weekend with windy Wellington pursuits! Swimming with juniors, down to the beach and round the playground a few times, the Te Papa Museum, lots of visits to the Warehouse (New Zealand's inexpensive clothes/household/toy/drugstore emporium on a large scale) before flying back to Auckland on Monday teatime in time to catch NZ1 from Auckland to London via Los Angeles later on that night! Five flights in the space of 72 hours is some sort of travelling and I need to live very quietly for a while after all these carbon emissions and juddering jet lag!
A stopover in London was a dreadful shock to the system after all the treats of NZ. I found people serving in the hotel were not exactly welcoming or helpful and the next morning the taxi driver dropped me off at Terminal 2, far away from the trolley stack with four pieces of luggage, despite my polite request for help to get a trolley. He just took the money and zoomed off. I was lucky that the driver of the car behind him noticed my problem as I struggled to move all pieces at the same time or leave half the luggage while taking the rest towards a trolley … anyway, I made it and didn't miss my plane. What a shame we don't have porters any more when so many people need jobs. I have decided not to go to London again unless I really, really need to - it was grim.
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