9th Jan day 86 hard to say goodbye

I was a woman on a mission first thing as I had set myself some jobs to complete before we went out for morning tea and farewells with Carol's family at 11am. I painted the back of the bathroom door putting on a second coat in order to give it time to dry before I left at 4pm. Because of Simon's damaged elbow he wouldn't be able to put on the lock and hook on the back of the door, so I wanted to do that for him. Also I wanted to change my bed, hoover, clean the bathroom and do all the washing and ironing, in order to leave the house straight. I resembled a whirling dervish (apologies if spelt wrongly). 

Anyway I had done most of it in time for us to arrive about 11.10am. It was so kind of them all to go to the trouble of this delicious morning tea with everything being homemade. All 10 of Carol's family were there including her sons. It was a boiling hot day, 30 degrees by mid-morning so it was lovely and cool to be under the gazebo surrounded by native NZ plants. We were there for a couple of hours and it was a very happy get-together. I do wonder when I will get to see them all again. It's impossible not to have these thoughts when they are all so far away. 

Wendy and I have got on famously, she had to leave a bit earlier as she plays croquet regularly and had a game.

When Simon and I got back to no 904 I pegged out the washing and then spent an hour catching the last of the hot, glorious sunshine, for a long time, I suspect. Simon and Carol had shared the cost of buying a new double bed for his spare room for me to sleep on with the understanding Matteo, Carol's eldest could have it when I left. Whilst I was sunbathing the boys came to collect the one and deliver the other, it was perfect because it meant I could make up my bedroom with the freshly dried bedding, that didn't require any ironing - yay.

Simon and I went to collect Nicholas as we were going out to Rush Munroes for our last ice cream. When we arrived 2 of Philippa's friends were helping her with packing. One of them Karina had her 2 girls there and the 3 kids were happily playing with water guns, in order to cool off. I had never met Lily the little one but Scarlet the eldest was just 18months old when Cheryl and I were there with her boys in 2008. The girls are on Nicholas's treehouse which I'll have to be broken up and changed into something else for this move as the new place doesn't have a tree.

Ice creams were perfect this afternoon, just what we needed to cool off.

Carol had very kindly offered to come to the airport to see me off and to prevent Simon having to drive until after his arm had at least had another X-ray on Tues. It was ideal because when we arrived we immediately went to the cafe for coffee and cake, by the time we had finished I had to board, so no time for tears.

It was a good flight to Auckland but I felt incredibly sad leaving my precious family and not knowing how long it would be before we see each other again. It was misty so this is the best shot I could get of the mountains in the centre in of the North Island.

Trying to get an airport shuttle to the Ibis, or a taxi proved a nightmare and in the event I had to walk for the best part of half an hour with all my baggage, not ideal. Then to make matters worse I had booked for the wrong date and caused a huge queue at reception but I got a room eventually by paying another £75. By the time I got to my room I was hot, bothered, exhausted and really gloomy. I didn't get in until 7.30pm so I decided not to get anything to eat just shower and go to bed. I wanted to save time in the morning as I had to get up at 3am. 

I prayed and read my book for a couple of hours but sleep eluded me, it didn't help I had to politely ask a group to stop shouting and laughing in the corridor outside my room at 11.30pm. I finally dozed off around 2am - that was a very expensive hours sleep!