Wendy's questionable public musings: October 2014

A few days with the Gordon family in Tauranga

After spending a day and a half with the Gaynors, Fiona was safely aboard a bus, travelling to Tauranga, where she would be joining Penny's cousin, Stuart, and his family - his wife Megan and their two children - a daughter more or less Fiona's age (Janis) and their son who is a little younger.

Fi hasn't seen Stuart for a good while from what I can work out, but was so excited by the whole trip. I felt so for her when she commented that it was the first time she actually cried after saying goodbye to her cousins - apparently on the bus on the way back.

She seemed to spend a good deal of time on the beach.

A sunset view looking towards land of the beach.

Some beach pics of Fiona and the two Gordon youngsters:

And then some general pics of wonderful times spent with the Gordons

Fiona aboard the Air New Zealand flight from Perth to Auckland

This made me laugh.

We spoke to Fiona just after she arrived in New Zealand (thanks Neil Gaynor), and she asked with astonishment whether I knew that we had booked her on this very luxurious plane to Auckland. I said we had not, she was flying economy all the way. She was tired, not having slept at all on the flight from Perth to Auckland, and when we next spoke, she revealed that it is apparently one of the new planes that Air New Zealand have.

She described her experience of boarding the plane, with the assistance of a flight attendant, and being led to her seat - a recliner, similar to a Lazy Boy. She apparently turned to the flight attendant, and innocently informed her that she thought there must be some mistake as she was booked into economy class, not business class. This caused some hilarity as the flight attendant informed her that she was indeed in economy, this was just one of the new planes they had.

She was taken by the lighting that kept changing, and then the array of movies and music on offer. It is no wonder she did not sleep. She landed safely in Auckland - the plane being early, but no hassle to her, and huge thanks to Neil, who found out it was arriving earlier, and so was at the airport to meet her.

One thing she did comment on was how incredible the Air New Zealand flight attendants were. She said she was treated so well on the flight. So kudos to the team!

I have just been on to look at the specs of the plane - and have found this link so people interested might want to go and have a look - our darling child who manages to find specials wherever she goes!!! The number of times we have gone and done shopping at Mr Price and she arrives at the tills to discover that at least one of her purchases are at a reduced rate is significant!

http://www.ausbt.com.au/air-new-zealand-to-upgrade-entire-boeing-777-200-fleet-this-year

ANOTHER daft selfie

Fiona's reclining seat and on board pic of the seats

The psychedelic lighting on board

An idea of the touch screen viewers - Fiona was surprised at the vast range of movies in particular!

Fiona goes on exchange!! - Pre-trip and Perth

In the absence of Fiona writing about her exchange, except via Facebook, and the various requests that have been made from people who do not have Facebook, I thought maybe I would try and capture second-hand, some of her experiences.

Following my fretting and worrying about our "little girl" travelling half way across the world, and much to the amusement of my friends, I compiled Fiona a thick file of information, containing anything and everything I could think of that she may need to try and make her trip a little less stressful. I even downloaded samples of the entry and exit cards that she would have to fill in into Australia, out of Australia, into New Zealand, out of New Zealand, back into Australia and then one for when she leaves Australia to come home. I then filled them in with all the information that I could - in the hopes that there would be no additional panics. Silly, I know, but she is such a special young lady who means so much to me that I just could not bear the thought of her missing out on a chance to enjoy things because she got stressed out.

The comment on Facebook from Fiona with regards the following pics she posted: "So now ... whilst waiting to board my plane ... I am pondering on how amazing it feels to fulfill a dream that I, as a 7 year old girl, aspired towards. I shall miss everyone but I will come back a refreshed human being. Thank you Dad and Wendy for allowing me to fulfill my dreams ♡♡ I'll miss you xx"

The following are the pics we took at the OR Tambo Airport:

Daddy says Farewell!

And so we learnt to take a "selfie"

A decent pic of me and Fiona - note the file!!!

The little rat - pulling her face - without either Keith or me realising it!

And ,,. she is off, trusty file in hand! :-)

When booking her tickets, we deliberately routed her through Perth, because my very special friend Silke lives there, and so if there were hassles, I knew that Fiona could at least contact someone who knew me.

What happened in the booking however, was that she had a longish layover in Perth, and so after much enquiring and checking, we finally were able to say that she was going to have time to finally meet Silke - someone who she has heard a good deal about, but never met - and in a funny way for Silks and me, it gave us a bit of a chance to feel as though we were finally meeting up with one another again!!!

Silke and Liam met her at the airport and in four hours did a whistle stop tour of Perth.

Liam and Fiona meet for the first time

Liam with the first of many signs Fiona specially requested to ensure she was meeting the right people when she arrived at airports.

We were able to enjoy a brief Viber chat with Silke and Fiona, and that was wonderful. However, Silke informed Keith and me, quite categorically that there was a condition attached to this whole thing - and that was that we had to promise that Fiona would be able to come over for longer, as there was no way that Silks could be expected to give Fi a tour of Perth in just four hours. Much hilarity from our side when I asked if that meant that Keith and I were not welcome then? Naturally Silks said that of course we could join them as well.

Liam and Fiona having fun with "selfies"

The second one has the following comment by Silke - " This is my favourite pic of all love it!"

Silks also posted the most beautiful message from Liam: "Fiona, as we were leaving the airport yesterday, Liam says that he felt that you had brought us joy! What a lovely compliment! Xx"