What's my Wark worth?

    Air Pacific was kind of a pain - in addition to the severe baggage restriction (only one 50 lb bag each, and no averaging), they gave us heart failure over incorrect information about flights. At 5 p.m. we learned that our 10 p.m. flight had already left at 3 p.m., according to their website. In fact, it didn't leave until close to 1 a.m. Sound systems were broken; my seat kept slowly reclining on the second leg no matter how often we were asked to "return your seats to their upright position". But we were happy enough with the price and the food wasn't as bad as reviews had let on. 

    In Fiji we de-planed to let them prep it for the second leg; apparently one of their 747's blew an engine a day or two earlier, and they're due to replace a number of them so they aren't spending money on repairs, just juggling their scheduling to try and muddle through until the new jets are commissioned. 

    There was a trio of musicians on hand to improve our mood as we stood in line to go through check-in and security checks once again; they sang "You Are My Sunshine" in Fijian, and when they switched to English many of us joined in. 

    But whatever...here we are in Warkworth, New Zealand. Well, actually outside of a smaller town nearby called Wellsford. Our hosts Leslie and Cathy have just left for their eight day vacation, and I finally have time to edit photos and write my travel blog. 

    We spent the first three days doing electric fencing, interior painting, splitting wood for the winter, and stuff like that. I found it exhausting - thank God I didn't become a farmer. It was touch-and-go whether they'd even get to leave: yesterday a calf died very suddenly, and for no explicable reason. They worried that it might be something contagious, and that they'd have more sick or dead calves to deal with this morning, which would have scuppered their vacation plans. 

    Cathy took us for a short tour of the area on our second day, and yesterday we all went into Auckland for the delightful Chinese lantern festival, an annual tradition here. The photos are in two albums: one of the farm and area, and one of the lantern festival. The lanterns were large, fascinating constructions of paper with lights inside. 

    Deborah is studying maps and we're deciding what we'll do for our day trips over the next eight days, and then what we'll try to see during the subsequent week. We'll feed the dogs, cats and ourselves (lots of fresh kitchen garden produce), and water the vegetables. We'll resume our journey southward on the 13th. We're expected by distant cousins in Dannevirk by the 19th, and by the last week of February we'll cross on the ferry to the south island for a circular drive that'll take a couple of weeks.

Next post.