Mark Smalley

Wednesday, 23 Mar - Melbourne
Looking back at NZ I see that we've seen/done 7 of the 9 things Lonely Planet mentions on its map of the North Island:
- Bay of Islands
- Rotorua
- Napier
- Tongariro
- Lake Taupo
- Auckland
- Waipoua Kauri Forest
We didn't see
- Waitomo Caves
- Wellington & Te Papa
Didn't plan it that way, but it seems like we've covered the highlights.

With a couple of hours to spare before we're expected at the airport we ask Gwen and Brian at the Skylodge where we can find a bit of green and they point us to the Botanic Gardens within 30 min driving. That's 30 min if you find it first time, which we didn't. It's a relaxing way to spend an hour and I have the opportunity to ask what the white cocoons are that we occasionally come across. Spiders webs, protecting the eggs inside, or so one of the young lady gardeners tells me, seemingly surprised that it's an unfamiliar sight for us.

We easliy find the car rental firm and get a lift from them to the airport. Skylodge put us onto them and get an easy 10% for it, or so the rental man tells us.

At the airport we get an update on the rest of our itinerary, just a minor change in our favour for the flight to Hong Kong in a weeks time, giving us an extra 15 min for a transfer from a domestic flight with another company than Qantas, who are doing 9 of our 11 flights. The other two (to and from Tasmania) we've booked ourselves with Jetstar, one of the low-cost operators.

The departure tax of $25 each comes as a bit of a surprise but helps us spend our remaining cash on something non-trivial.

An interview by A.C.Nielsen about our travels in NZ helps to pass the time and rewards us with a CD-Rom on NZ. Suppose I could have directed them to the blog for most of the questions.

We're getting to be seasoned travellers now, I don't have to lookup my passport number any more. And a flight of 'only' 4 hours to Melbourne seems nothing special.

The Qantas menu offers chicken or fish but all they have is beef.

After having our boots checked for dangerous soil form NZ and having some seashells approved by customs, we're met by a friend we made on a chance encounter at a war memorial gathering on a visit to Melbourne in 2003 and with whom Marijke's kept in touch by email. She's in her eighties but still very active and independent and is kindly putting us up for a few nights. She does, however, have difficulty finding where she's parked the car but we find it in the end and we're off to Williamstown on the west, where she lives in a retirement village in a lovely 3-bedroomed house with a double garage and a view of the water and the sunset from the back of the house.
We discuss a broad number of subjects: plants, birds, computers, art, the Hermitage and her recommendation for a trip 'Waterways of the Tsars', travel, table manners, politics, housing, retirement homes, the University of the Third Age (U3A), the Book of the Kells, the Southern sky and the outline of the programme she's got set out for us tomorrow.
I have an idea we're going to have a busy time here...

posted by Mark Smalley @ 5:18 PM