Wednesday 27th & Thursday 28th February - End of Part One

Hi everybody for the last time for a few days.

We've spent the morning in Auckland, after finally packing up our worldly possessions in our 2 suitcases and 2 carry on bags. Tom reckons if we've managed to live out of 2 cases and a few carrier bags for 6 weeks, we can throw out all the stuff from our wardrobes at home - I think NOT!!

Our first stop was to an Esquires coffee shop where, for the price of a couple of drinks, you get free internet access for an hour. Tom used up the hour posting the last 3 blogs and putting in all the photographs for them. I went off to send off some postcards - some of you will be lucky enough not to get one! - and finally send home the copy dvd's of the photos we've taken so far in New Zealand. When I rejoined him, we started to check the mail and that's when the computer dumped us out because we'd run out of battery power!!

As they don't like you having another hour free, we trudged up the road to the next Esquires and had another drink. Tom was able to plug into the mains and set up the computer again so we could read the latest mails. I did reply to a few but ran out of time and then it was time anyway to catch the Airport shuttle bus. Auckland airport, and I would guess, all the NZ a'ports are very strict about carrying no more than 100ml of any cream, lotion or liquid through their security. Although there had been a guard giving this information at the check-in desk, there were no further signs that we noticed about this. As a result, no end of people were caught out having bought perfumes and booze in the shops before going through departure security. Amazingly, they had duty-free shops selling this stuff before the security check. This was because you could buy for collection on your return, but there were many people who bought to take with them. While we were going through, one poor guy was having a 150ml bottle of very expensive looking perfume confiscated, having just bought it a few minutes earlier. If you remember, this was also the case at Singapore, so I just thought I'd warn you all again to be very careful if you're flying anywhere soon.

Toms Note. What she doesn't mention is that one particular person happened to have a couple of large bottles of soft drink in her hand luggage, which she hadn't said anything about until we were standing in the queue to check in. I managed to drink the coke before security, but someone had to throw her bottle of water away. You have to put everything liquid or gel into a single plastic bag, and no individual container can be bigger than 100ml. So someone who hadn't done this then had to go through her carry on bag and handbag, decanting gels, smellies, lip salve etc, from the pockets into the plastic bag. I said that the 150gm yoghurt wouldn't get through security, but someone had a go anyway, so we reported to the security officer after x-ray, for a short lecture on liquids, and had the yoghurt confiscated and binned.

OK, back to the travel news. Our flight set off on time and was very full. We had heard good reports of Emirates but I'm afraid this flight did not live up to expectations. There was no drink or nibbles offered, and when the meals eventually came, one of the main dishes had already all gone. Only one drink was offered with the meal and we waited ages for the tea/coffee. Tom called one of the crew because we decided to buy a couple of duty free items. No-one appeared and eventually he went to find someone.We were told that the crew was busy with business and first class and would deal with us when they could! In the end, we couldn't get anything as it was going to take them 25 minutes to do all the paperwork (??) and we only had 30 minutes to landing!

The captain then told us that because of bad weather at Sydney airport (!! sound familiar??)) we were in a holding pattern and would be 30 minutes delayed in landing. True to that, we did land exactly 30 mins late, having had a little glimpse of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House against a very black sky on the way down. The lightning was flashing in the distance and it started to really pour as we came to a halt. We disembarked OK and made our way to Baggage Reclaim where the bags started to come through - then it all stopped! There was a tremendous storm going on overhead the airport and nothing was being moved at all. We were the last flight allowed to land before the storm really set in. Everyone stood around for ages, with regular apologies over the tannoy for the delay in unloading the bags - you can imagine some of the comments! It was well over an hour before the luggage started to come through again- poor Cheryl and Matt who had come to meet us were waiting in the arrivals hall with Verity (14months old) for 2 hours in the end!

Anyway, we did get out by which time the rain had almost stopped and it was quite warm and humid. We called in at a local store for some supper food and arrived at the house at 9.30pm local time, 11,30pm NZ time. Poor little Verity was so overtired, she was really grumpy but at last settled to sleep, we had a snack then all went to bed.

Thursday.

We woke early, or late, depending on whether you work in Oz or NZ time, to grey skies - but within an hour of getting up, another storm hit - and how!! We thought we'd seen rain in NZ, but this was something else - I imagine it must have been like momsoon rain as we couldn't see much past the end of the house. Talking of which, Matt and Cheryl's house is lovely, only a few months old and small by Oz standards we're told, but enormous by UK. We're going to be spending about a week here, but the first few days will be R&R to recover from the NZ part of our holiday. Cheryl is the niece of Tom's sister-in-law, Liz, and has lived in Oz for nearly 7 years, marrying Matt, an Aussie, in December 2004.

These storms that are currently affecting the country are the worst they've had in 40 years according to the news/weather people - so it's not just us, as they started before we got here!

Once we start doing the touristy bit again, we'll reopen the blog, which, by the way is famous - if you put "tom and maggie on tour" into Google, we're the first entry and if you then click "more results from tomandmaggie.blogspot.com ", we fill 4 pages!! This weather is meant to last another few days, but that will be quite nice, as it gives us a real chance to catch our breath. I've just realised I'm missing out on Pimms o'clock so I'm off. Love to you all and enjoy the break!! Speak to you again soon.

PS. Our mobile number in Australia (amended by Tom) will now be 0061 424 341174, if you have the urgent need to call us! otherwise e-mails are very welcome from the home front!