On to Gisborne

There was no need to get up early so we luxuriated in our hotel room for a while. We eventually made our way to breakfast which was a fairly dismal experience at 9.30.
On the way back to our room we checked our taxi to the airport had been booked and found out it had been booked fifteen minutes earlier than we had thought. Back to the room and the final packing was completed by the master packer and before we knew it we were in reception paying our bill and boarding the awaiting taxi.
At the airport one of our suitcases was over the limit and we were back in the familiar territory of unpacking our cases in public and rearranging them. This has become a part of our lives and whilst we detest the whole process we have to live with it. The very nice lady at the check in added insult to injury by placing a vivid orange "heavy" sticker on both of our suitcases.
We had to wait for an hour in the airport and decided to do this at the gate indicted on the departure board. This seemed fine until ten minutes before the flight when over the tan not it was announced the gate had been changed from fourteen to eight. This necessitated a long walk back to the new gate where we had to wait a few minutes before boarding our plane.
The flight up to Gisborne was excellent and Andrew and Sally were there to meet us. There were tears in Andrew and Rosemarie.'s eyes as they stood there hugging each other.
Back to Andrew and Sally's for lunch and then a walk into town to make a hair appointment for the expedition manager. I also needed a new pair of shorts as I had managed to rip a pair. We drove to the beach to have a look and then dropped Rosemarie off at the hairdressers. For some reason Andrew dropped her off at the back of the haridresser's about ten minutes walk away and then proceeded to drive around to the front of the shop within about thirty seconds. When I asked him why he had done this he dissolved into fits of laughter.

Whilst we were sat around waiting for the expedition manager to return the phone rang and it was Andrew's work to say that all the old people were sitting around waiting for their dinner as the relief cook had got confused and gone home thinking that fish and chips were being bought in. Andrew and I rushed off to the home and I was given the heavy responsibility of making two gallons of tomato soup. I also helped cooking bacon, tomatoes and oven chips, all in a professional kitchen.

Back home, catastrophe averted we had rost pork for tea and sat there chatting pleasantly until bed time. The master packer had to think about a little more about preparing for our trip North tomorrow  and it was almost straight off to sleep.