Off to New Zealand.

 A 9:30 take off meant a 4:30 wake up! Luckily I woke half an hour earlier because just as I was unloading the dishwasher I received a call to say that my ride was here! What! Half an hour early!! Luckily I was organised and off I went into the dark, rainy day.

There has been a change at Sydney airport since my last trip in February with open shops and eateries in evidence - still a long way to go to get back to pre Covid days!

The flight was really quite empty and three hours went by quickly. With only hand luggage, a quick walk through passport control and a bit of a queue through immigration I was out of the terminal. With a bit of a wait until my domestic flight I found a place to have a snack.

It is an easy 10 minute walk, following the green line, to get from the international to domestic terminal. A little more walking around and it was time to get into the 'little tin can' for the flight to New Plymouth! Unfortunately I had to wedge my case under the seat as it wouldn't fit in the overhead locker but as it was only a 35 minute flight it wasn't a problem. We did manage to reach 10,000 feet and were above the clouds for a while.

As you can see I had the window seat!

We landed to a lovely sunset.

Disembarking I was met by brother Mike who was rather surprised when told that I had no luggage to pick up! I did have to remind him of our dad's words when going on holiday - "If it doesn't fit in a paper bag it doesn't go!" 

I haven't been to this house before. Last time I visited it was just a piece of land with ideas of the house to go on it! Now it is established with lovely views out to the ocean.

I was worked to birds twittering and cows moving!

Mike had a physio appointment so we went off to town and later had a long walk by the ocean. I had forgotten about the black sand - so different from our golden beaches! There was an awful lot of driftwood lying around - it seems that it is better for nature to leave it rather than clean up. There must have been some serious storms for the amount piled up.