Am I nearly there yet??

Hi folks

Yes, am back in NZ safe and sound but not without incident. To go back a pace ... Tues night last week, took Easter eggs up to the girls to say goodbye (sorry workmate for the sugar rush, LOL) and a birthday cake . After a coffee I headed back to my house to finish packing. I have this wonderful instruement bought at Heathrow airport that you can weigh your luggage with, so after carefully packing suitcase and back pack, checked out the weights. It was at this point, I realised, the camp kitchen I had bought for my sister and family (that I was trying to get back to NZ) weighed 16k and not 30k like I thought. (OK, the writing is small on these hand held scales and I never noticed the lbs sign v kilos!!!!) so an immediate repack ensued. At the original 30k it would have cost $400+ to freight fwd or $280+ for overweight luggage. I threw out clothing and only packed bare necessities around the camp kitchen (it came with it's own carry bag) - that then became my 'suitcase' whilst I packed remaining goods in my back pack managing to come under allowable wieghts for both. Yay.

I then decided to wash my hair - no problems until I went to use the blowdryer. I plugged it in and boom, the front nozzle shot off onto the floor and when I dropped the blowdryer onto the carpet it started to glow red - minor heart attack as I leapt towards the plug and pulled it out (never 100% confident when dealing with electricity and then gingerly picked up said machine, opened the door and threw it on the lawn - just in case it reignited in the night or emitted poisonous fumes during the night!!!! Next dilemma, going to bed with wet hair - urk. Read for a while in case it self dried and finally turned out lights around 1.30am, packed, dishes done, floor swept etc etc.

During the packing I also realised, I had left my sunglasses up at school - b----y bollocks! Again, a dilemma - do I throw something over night attire and get them then and there, or do I leave it until the morning - and chose the latter. Setting the alarm for 5.30am next morning, grabbed the torch and shot up to school to get glasses - as I was walking back - I noticed another house with all the lights on and thought - who is mad enough to be up at this time ..... I had walked halfway to the front gate after taking the wrong fork in the road .... (I did better in the pitch black the week before LOL) as it was MY house with lights blazing!! Made it back to my place with mins to spare before my ride arrived, one last look about and off we went.


Br threw me a bit of a curve ball when he asked if I knew any prayers for safe travel (this to the person who could not find her way back to her own house, LOL) and at 6am I have to say, nothing sprung to mind. Fortunately, Br had one to go and off we set, with two pairs of eyes looking for kangaroos who might leap out in our path. Fortunately the prayer worked - there were three dead kangaroos on the side of the road between Tardun and Perth and not one did we have to hit! Had a pit stop on the way, where I bought some breakfast and drinks for the trip. The slight delay, whilst I purchased said goods (and possibly the prayer!) meant that we just missed getting struck by a falling branch off a tree!!!! somewhere out of Bindoon. I saw the branch falling at the same time I heard a crack like a gun over the sound of the car going. A fortunate escape.

Br had an appointment in Perth so I drove to the lake and waited to pick him up - I had a library book that needed finishing and was more than happy to sit and read. After meeting up with Br again, we went to where he was staying in Perth and I ended up having lunch with 8 other Br's .... ( thats up there with me staying in a nunnery in Fiji at St Christopher's, LOL). I then had a grand tour of Perth (the Catholic highlights) .. We went to Aquinas College first (had to drop a parcel off there) followed by a visit to the Christian Bros office, then to Clontarf (originally an orphanage, now an aboriginal college), Trinity College, then the main road in Perth city, and a drive through Kings Park. There were a few other jobs we had to do that meant we had covered a good amount of Perth before heading to the airport. Perth very much reminded me of Auckland with so much water. Aquinas and Trinity college land went right to the water in each case, both schools with great buildings and grounds. Kings Park looks well worth a return visit, as there are botanical gardens, war memorials, water gardens and many walks through it. One of the things I found amusing was road signs with outline pictures of tortoises on them as in beware! tortoises crossing!!!! Thankfully, not something we had to worry about that day.

I still had a couple of hours to go so we decided to go to the movies - The Other Bolyn Girl - historically inaccurate and filmed quite darkly - I think there are better movies about Anne Bolyn to see. As I had checked my bags prior to the movie, I got dropped back at the airport and had just enough time to get my tickets and walk to the right lounge and I was off - 12.15am Wednesday. Needless to say, I slept to Sydney, but wait there's more! Had to transfer from the domestic to international airport by bus - moved to the correct lounge, boarded the bus and after numerous starts (and 15 mins) another bus finally turns up to take us to the correct terminal. A short gallop to the right lounge there, straight onto the plane and we finally left! I slept my way to Auckland which was great. Customs, another cut lunch and a map and I was finally out the gate to be picked up, about 2 hours from ETA. Back to Waiuku and roast chicken with umpteen vegetables for dinner - yay. Great to see family and catch up - sister and family came for dinner also. Although it is only 8.20pm in WA, its 12.20pm in NZ so will sign off for now. Tomorrow I will write about my awesome weekend spent at the Inaugural Bluesfest concert in Whitianga, that I attended yesterday - watch this space.
Cheers
Lynn