Arrival in NZ

Sunday 31 August
This part of the sabbatical is almost over as we have arrived in NZ. We fly down to Opotiki tomorrow. I hoped it was Summer over here as I have got used to 29-35 degrees, but the 11 degrees when we arrived put paid to that idea.

On Thursday morning Leigh and I bused into Georgetown where we walked down the main street, through the colonial centre, around Fort Cornwallis, along the port area and through some scary traffic until our scheduled bus trip back to the beach. We spent the afternoon doing what we do well, swimming and sunning.

We went to our favourite food stall where we started with sambal fish and followed up with squid and chicken and dried chilli. Once again we had an outstanding feed.

On Friday we checked out of our paradise hotel and flew out of Penang airport to Singapore for one more night. We wandered around Marina Square trying to find some Skins for Lucy, but none were to be found.

We caught up with Terry and Dallas who had just arrived from Kuala Lumpur. After a pool side beer we wandered into Arab St where we had a halal meal. I had chicken and potatoes, Terry and Leigh had lamb, and Dallas had beef with prunes.

We needed a beer after that so wandered into our hotel bar where a dance class was showing off their skills. The barman was ill-mannerd and the beers were $15 so we bailed out.

On Sunday morning we taxied to Little India to Mustafa's 24 hour shopping mall. This was a treasure trove which I am pleased we did not discover earlier. Leigh managed to buy some nice jewellery!

After checking out we wandered down the road in a new direction and found a neat shopping area which I am also pleased we didn't discover earlier. Leigh bought a watch because her 'Rolex' is already broken. We also bought some neat shirts as gifts for some lucky people.

We then had a great lunch in a local's food court where we were looked after by a drunk old fellow who was good fun. He delivered lime juices and cane sugar juice to wash down our meals of chicken and dried chilli, black pepper beef, fish and noodles and pork.

We then relaxed by and in our hotel pool until about 4.30pm when we taxied out to the airport and after hanging around for a few hours boarded our plane to New Zealand. It was a pretty straight-forward flight but got little sleep as I found it difficult to get comfortable.

We said good bye to Terry and Dallas who were connecting straight to Tauranga and we headed to our airport hotel for our flight home tomorrow. It's a very average motel/hotel, but will do. We have decided to stay awake rather than sleeping so we get a good night's sleep tonight. It's now 5.30pm and I am really struggling to keep awake.

We went for a walk through the local Mangere streets in the cold wind to blow out the cobwebs.

Nearly home!