Monday 16th March 2009

Oh Dear! Our last day! We checked out of the hotel at 10.00 and stowed our luggage in the hotel. We had the whole day in Auckland until 8.00 when our taxi was booked to take us to the airport. After we had breakfast at Dennys we took the free bus to Kelly Tarlton’s Antartic Adventure and Undersea World on the other side of town. We took a snowmobile ride which started with Scott’s expedition to Antartica. Next the ride took us into the penguin enclosure – all indoors but they have recreated the artic environment making 30 tonnes of snow a day. They had a pool too with glass sides and we could see them swimming alongside us.

Next came the aquarium with huge pools which also contained stingrays and turtles. Have you ever seen the underneath of a stingray – look at this!

We then went in a glass tunnel and were in the middle of Sharks, Groupers, and loads of other fish (can’t remember which ones!) Then there were various tanks of crayfish conger eels marine fish coral reefs and seahorses. They were beautiful. We did not leave until 3.00 and caught the bus back into the City.

After a wander around the city shops (well I had to didn’t I?) Fred got a bit fed up with all the people dawdling in front of him – he said “bloody tourists” so we went and had a look at Albert Park just on the edge of the City.

The flower beds was beautiful – we sat on a bench in the sunshine and Fred watched the students coming out of the University – a diverse bunch he called them. Dear followers I said previously that he was back and I wasn’t joking – he spent the entire time “commenting” on their size, appearance, personal attraction and when it got to the mature students – Well! They did not stand a chance!!

By now it was getting on so we decided to have a meal and go back to the hotel- grab our luggage and change for the trip home.

Our take off was due at 11.55pm but we did not leave until 00.20am. Once again, as the plane wasn’t full, we had an extra seat so we could spread out. As the first leg of the trip was completely in the dark, for 10 hours, we managed to get some sleep. Once again we had a two hour stopover in Hong Kong. When we got back on the plane, for the last 12 hour flight – this time all in daylight - there was an engine problem which took an hour to solve. I did a bit of fluttering of the eyes to one of the stewards, and ensured that we still had the extra seat. It must have worked because not only did we get the extra seat, we got a big bottle of water to ensure that we did not dehydrate – and what ended up being a whole bottle of champagne to ourselves. None of the other passengers got this treatment – see the old girl hasn’t lost it!!

The visibility from the plane, apart from being slightly hazy, was excellent. We crossed China, the northern tip of the Himalayas, and over the top of Moscow.

We touched down at 2.20pm and after some further delay, this time in the luggage arriving at reclaim, our dear friends Geoff and Beryl were waiting to take us home. We had a lovely holiday but it was good to be home.

It was a brilliant holiday for us and we hope you enjoyed reading the blog of our journeys. It was certainly good to know so many of you were reading it.

Now it only remains to say Goodnight from Me – and Goodbye from Him.