The Journey Begins

You know what it’s like with holidays – plans are made months in advance, and then it’s just a waiting game.  But here we are, it’s finally time to go.  But first our beautiful Birman Gemma had to go on holiday too, and she didn’t go willingly.  And why should she, after all, she knows she is a caravan cat and doesn't she usually come away with us on our trips away?    Not this time, Gemma was dropped off at the cattery while we took to the sky.

Gemma’s having a holiday too

This is our second try at the Indian Pacific train trip, from Perth to Sydney.  You may remember that last year we boarded the train, travelled for a couple of hours and then we sat and waited, and waited, beside some grain silos, wondering what the hold-up was.  Due to a derailment further up the line and the tracks being torn up in the middle of nowhere, our trip was cancelled and the train took us all back to Perth.  I’m sure we will have better luck this time.

We had a leisurely start to the day, deciding that we really didn’t want to do the extra early morning flight to Auckland to connect with the Aussie flight.  Instead we arrived at Palmerston North Airport in time for a light lunch, and boarded the flight to Auckland, where we will stay overnight.  Much more civilized.  For a small regional airport, Palmerston North is quite busy indeed, with planes coming and going.  No air bridges here though, we all walked out to the plane and climbed up the ramp.

Leaving Palmerston North

Flying above the clouds, which really looked just like fluffy  lemon meringue pie,  we made good time, with just a couple of bumps along the way to keep us interested.  A big yellow bus took us to the Naumi Hotel where we are spending the night.  This hotel has had several make-overs and name changes over the years, we were told.  It seems rather glamorous in it’s new guise, I thought.

Naumi Hotel

We dined “in house” at the restaurant,and the meals were certainly delicious, lamb for her and pork belly for him.  As we had ordered our meals prior to 6.30pm we qualified for a free drink.  Thanks to Bill and Val for this tip, they also stayed here a few days ago.

Tomorrow we head across to Perth, certainly looking forward to that.  Then we will really feel that we are on holiday!