The Eagle has Landed!!

Well, here I am back again in NZ - touched down just after 5am NZ time this morning. The last week passed pretty much in a blur. The beginning of the week involved writing, correcting and signing reports, cleaning up the last of the things left behind, plus cleaning and sorting our living area in the boarding house.

Wednesday was the staff end of year dinner which was very nice. It was catered and served by several local ladies - one of whom was my favourite librarian! Highlight of the evening was once most folk had gone, the boss got our DP to cook up some kangaroo for a late supper (around midnight, lol). He had prepared it with herbs and spices including a touch of chili so had a very warm mouth but found it OK to eat. It was cut in decent sized chunks - about 1 - 1 1/2" square and not unlike beef in texture but perhaps a little more dense in structure. (it was late at night so that is about the best I can do to describe it, lol).

Thursday was spent mainly cleaning my place, getting washing and ironing up to date and I changed the lounge around - ok, I moved the TV to a different wall and visa versa with a couch - it has opened the lounge up and feels more user friendly I think. I put my ham on to bake mid morning after scoring the skin with a knife, then putting cloves into the skin, followed by pineapple rings secured by a cherry and toothpick in the middle of each circle. I then sprinkled brown sugar over the whole lot with a small amount of pineapple juice in the tray and baked for the next few hours. The WM had scoffed at me decorating said ham but OMG, it was delicious (the very surprised words out of her own mouth, LOL). We had the ham, a small roast of lamb and a roast of beef with roast vegies and greek salad for our 'christmas' dinner which we shared with one of our cooks and a colleague that the WMH co - teaches with. It was a great dinner and not a very late night as I was still trying to sort packing out.

Friday I got to go to Gton and do my Christmas shopping for the Oz brigade and to get some more Christmas cards. I had the WM's car while she had her hair streaked so was able to browse to my heart's content and found I haven't completely lost my talent for shopping or a bargain, LOL. Of course, I seem to have bought myself several things along the way - as you do - amongst all the other bits and pieces.

We didn't get back to school until 6pm so had my last dinner (more ham) with the entire WM's family as the girls came back with us from their boarding school, then after a game of cards, went home to wrap the rest of my parcels and to finish off the other 101 things I needed to do. I was completely over the whole packing thing in the end and to my cost - just threw things in regardless. I finally got to sleep around 1.30 to get up at 5am to leave school at 6.30am for the airport.

Ended up by having two bags plus laptops (had to bring one back to get fixed) and my back pack so got charged $24 for overweight luggage and had to put the laptops in the hold because I was only allowed to have one piece of hand luggage for Sky West in Gton. Grimmaced but thought OK can deal with that - it was $3 per kilo overweight and I think they only charged me for the bags as the laptops and handluggage was overweight as well. Hopped on the plane and woke up in Perth. Found a trolly just inside the door so nabbed it - they are usually locked in lines outside the door and in Perth it costs $4 to use a trolly!!!!! My next challenge was going to the loo ( I know, the familiar theme of all my travel, LOL). What to do - I could not leave my luggage unattended (did not want to be arrested as a terrorist before I got out of the country or to have my luggage blown up!) and because of the shape and amount of it, there was no way I was going to squeeze into the ladies. Just as I was starting to feel a bit desperate, I had a lightbulb moment and thought, aha, the handicapped loo - the only place with a door wide enough for me and said bags to get through - and all was resolved.

The next challenge was that I could not check my luggage in until 3 hours before boarding and as it was 10am when I arrived in Perth domestic terminal, 11am by the time I got to the International airport (by shuttle bus) and my flight was not until 6.50pm, I had some time to kill. I decided to start on my Christmas cards and spent a good two hours on them, posting a pile just outside the door, then read for awile. One of the Brs was already in Perth and he had offered to pick me up for a while if I wanted so did just that. It meant loading all the luggage in his car so as not to leave it behind, and then we found the Belmont shopping area not far from the airport so I was able to have some lunch there.

This shopping area is the equivalent of a small town, all under the one roof, and if I could have, I would have gone crazy as the variety and amount of tempting goodies was just that, VERY tempting but I am glad I resisted. Got back to the airport about 5pm and checked in my luggage. Because of the weight and whinging about my hand luggage at Gton, I had rearranged some of my stuff and repacked it in one of my bags. Imagine my SHOCK at reading Air NZ charges - $20 per overweight kilo. And, wouldn't you know it, they never weighed my hand luggage or laptops (which were now lighter by several kilos that in turn made my two main bags equal 10k overweight). I think the fact they nearly needed to use a defibrolater to help me cope with the shock ( had already done the maths in my head $200!!!!!) meant that was all I had to pay. I was over the whole thing of it all by then and just paid the money with the words 'theiving b%@###'s' running through my head. If I had thought about it I would have repacked a good amount of stuff back into my backpack and put the extra laptop with my other one in the laptop bag and I would have probably only been 5K overweight. (I had also put on extra clothing that I packed in Gton for cooler weather and drunk two bottles of water I had in my back pack, less the cards I had posted too). So be warned any other travellers out there, do not make decisions when you are too tired to be bothered or to think carefully, because it can cost you.

Even though Air NZ is a 'thieving pack of b**%@###'s, I have to say the flight was excellent. After travelling on Virgin Blue from Sydney to Perth in a space that meant you felt like a cricket with your knees nearly folded up around your ears to fit, I momentarily felt like I was in first class by comparison. I was able to stretch my legs out fully under the seat in front of me which was fantastic. I was also very impressed with the new and improved entertainment set up in the back of the seat, that included the remote to same set in the back of the seat as well, instead of tucked into the side of the arm of the seat which is what I have experienced in the past. There was an excellent choice of music to listen to so loaded up a whole lot of songs and settled to read my book. Managed to finish it just before my eyes gave out completely, grabbing about 1 hours sleep when all the lights came on in the plane and we were half an hour out from landing. Landed to 'Eclipse' from Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' playing in the headphones.

Am seriously impressed with the new and improved Auckland International airport. Even though there were multitundious people disgoring from several planes, it took less than 30 mins to get through customs, buy duty free grog, collect luggage, go through more customs and xrays to reach the arrival lounge. Lots of space, lots of people working so lots of queues that moved very efficiently. Loved coming back through the carved lintel/doorway along the corridoor into customs then seeing so many Maori and Polynesian faces which is distinctively Auckland and NZ.

Kay and Viv arrived a short while after to pick me up and it was back to Mum's for breakfast with various family members that turned up. Have to admit to needing a Nana nap by 10 am NZ time as I had been about 22 hours awake and was starting to feel it.