Nelson, Wellingon, Hobart

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After staying at Neal's father's house in Seatoun Heights overnight, we were up at 4am for a taxi to the airport and an early morning flight out of Wellington. Unfortunately, overnight a huge storm (weather bomb) had brewed up over the middle of the country bringing heavy rain and high gale force winds. We boarded the plane on time but sat on the tarmac bouncing about for about an hour waiting to leave. Eventually, they towed the plane to a more sheltered location so that the bags could be loaded. Surprisingly enough once the bags were loaded we were able to leave despite the high winds. We flew out directly into the wind and with a bit of turbulence eventually cleared the clouds into calmer weather.

Air New Zealand endeavours to make sure you have the least amount of leg room possible and there was virtually little difference between upright and reclined. We opted to have no meals on a 3 hour flight so were getting pretty hungry by Melbourne where we arrived over an hour late. We then had the fiasco of huge lines of people from 2 or more aircraft all trying to clear customs. What a joke! All these people were being dealt with by only 3 staff. By all accounts this was a typical scenario according to a local. “Time to spare, fly by air”. We eventually boarded the Virgin Pacific airline to Hobart and had a very good flight with them with plenty of room.

In Hobart, Annamaria and Michael were there to meet us and take us home to their house in Howrah which is on the east side of the Derwent River inlet facing across to the city. A very nice view. We talked about travels and this and that, settled in then went for a walk along a lovely sandy beach and then took a drive along the Derwent inlet to a fort where we could get an overview of the city. After scrabble, drinks and dinner we drove back to the airport where we met Karilyn and Neal off their plane and picked up the rental car which had been upgraded from a VW car to a huge Toyota Kruger RV. The day was completed with much chatting and catching up.

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