Our adventures have restarted. Rob and I are bound for Auckland, this time it has taken only about 24 hours so far and from the plane's camera on its nose we can see the sunrise over the Tasman sea, with the North Island of NZ just visible on the horizon. Tintin is down there, moored at Marsden Cove Marina near Whangarei, north of Auckland. It is a great feeling to be nearly back on board again, and very exciting to be visiting New Zealand.
Yesterday it wasn't so clear that we would make it to the airport in time to catch our flight. Rob's back has been causing him some grief over the last few weeks and yesterday morning I found him prone on the bedroom floor trying to pack his bag, but unable to move due to the pain. Much worse than ever before. But he managed to get up eventually and stayed upright and mobile and mostly smiling (or grimacing). Good.
For the first time we looked forward to being taken to the airport by one of our children, real role reversal. James was our chauffeur at the wheel of the 18 yr old Polo. Filling the tank en route to Heathrow in Amersham we noticed fuel leaking onto the forecourt from under the car almost as fast as it was going in via the nozzle. Ahhhh. Not a good sign. Bucketfuls of sand were deployed and we pushed the car to a far corner of the forecourt. I called for a taxi and for the AA (I love the AA by the way), feeling so glad that I had arranged AA cover for the polo the day before.
Leaving a slightly stranded James we went on our way, and by the time we were boarding the plane the AA had done their magic, fixing a leak in the tank down pipe (probably caused by gliglis) with putty.
More anon...