Having taken an hour to fall asleep last night I overslept this morning and was dragged out of bed with my eyes still closed after 09:00. My body clock is still obviously set on Maldivian time, some 8 hours earlier than New Zealand, and it is really frustrating. I want to be up early to see and do things during the day but my body is against me!
After finding a shower than didn't scald me or refuse to drain away Ian had me cut his hair again. I didn't make such a good job of it this time. He doesn't like it when I am slow, or thorough as I like to call it, and as a result he had the back of his head quite patchy. Still, he won't be reading my journal until late next year by which time it will have long since grown out!
Back in the cyber cafe I made some progress on searching for some accommodation in Tonga, at least I have some names and corresponding telephone numbers for a dozen guest houses which are said to be charging reasonable rates. I still think we should just take the flight and arrange something on arrival. Anyway it looks positive that we will be able to enjoy our week in Tonga within our budget. We also learned of the shocking events of recent weeks of our previous employer, Tornado Entertainment Ltd, who have dismissed all of it's employees in earnest in precedence of the winding up hearing this week.
Leaving the cyber cafe, where our host had now taken to caring that I wasn't too cold sat by the door and offering to move me to another terminal, we made for Queen Street again. The road was closed off to traffic and lined with people in favour of a Santa parade which consisted of many floats forming a procession down the entire length of Queen Street to the harbour. It reminded me very much of the Norfolk Country Fayre and the days when Mum took me on the Colmans Mustard float. It also made me slightly sad when Santa's float went past and I thought ot my family back home for Christmas. I don't usually spend Christmas Day with my family but being 175 degrees, some 11,000 kilometres, around the world from them is very different to being 10 kilometres away from them...
When the procession was over we headed back to the swimsuit shops. I rallied between them checking for prices and fit and finally settled for something suitable for wearing under a wetsuit. We enjoyed a quiet snack and a beer in a pub showing the England versus Australia cricket match. Naturally the England team was doing well...
On the way back towards the youth hostel, where I was keen to make progress on the route plan for New Zealand on our return from Tonga, we saw a park entrance and went to have a look. We wandered in to Albert Park and from there we checked our map and saw that Auckland Domain was huge and not too far from Albert Park, so we walked there. It was a vast expanse of green grass, big trees and pretty flowers in bloom and a duck pond. A huge war museum and memorial was at the top of the hill and walking up to it gave us a fantastic view over Auckland and the neighbouring islands.
We dined at Planet Hollywood, as we knew we could receive a fifteen per cent discount on presenting our YHA membership cards, which was nice and filling, despite receiving dishes that had something missing from the menu. We enjoyed the wine, our first bottle since Chongwe back at the beginning of October! However, as usual, I was overfull and felt pretty rough as I fell asleep before midnight!
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.