HOLIDAYS Part1

Since being confined to my wheelchair I am very fortunate that I have been able to continue to enjoy annual holidays. After Mac’s fated visit to Majorca I have always been lucky to find a friend to escort me and have over the years visited some very interesting places. One being Kenya

In 1995 my friend Doreen who is also an avid animal lover decided we would like to experience a safari in Kenya. Everyone thought we were a little mad but with good guidance from a travel agent we set off to Mombasa for two weeks. We had been advised to book our proposed safari at the hotel as it needed to be one that I could comfortably enjoy. Our eventual selection was to take a light aircraft flight to the Massai Mara and spend a couple of nights under canvas. This is not quite as it sounds because our tents were canvas houses with proper beds shower and toilet in fact very comfortable.

The first night I was very tired so stayed in our tent while Doreen went to the dining room for dinner. I was brought soup and a sweet so didn’t have to do without food. After eating my repast I lay back in bed revelling in my thoughts of actually being on Safari, that is until I heard a tapping noise on my canvas surroundings then I became very alert imagining a wild animal trying to gain access? After a while the tapping became more intense and I felt some drips of water on my face and realised that my imagination had run wild and it was in fact only rain!

We had to get up very early the following morning and me and my wheelchair were lifted into a jeep with picture windows and padded seats. Sun Rise is the best time to see the vast majority of animals as it is then that they start looking for food. We saw almost all the different inhabitants of the Massai Mara including the big five and we both had a great opportunity to take close up pictures from the jeep. Seeing the wild animals in their natural habitat was a wonderful experience as I have never favoured zoos and nature parks where the animals only have limited freedom. We were also taken to a Massai encampment and met all the natives in their bright red saris. Their mud huts are built in a circle so that the cattle are kept safe within. There had been a lot of rain the previous evening and what with the mud and cattle pancakes I cannot explain what my wheelchair wheels were like. Our guide spent quite some time scraping the tyres and spokes clean and the smell lasted forever! Doreen and I bought some hand-made necklaces from the ladies which I still have today.

JOURNEY HOME FROM HELL

On arrival at Los Angeles we got a taxi to our hotel totally unaware of what had happened until we turned on our television and saw all the flight disruption it had caused.  We tried to get information about our next day flight to UK but to no avail just told to turn up at LA Airport at our allotted time.

After a worrying night receiving text and e-mail messages from home telling us all the UK airports were closed we left our hotel and took a taxi to the Airport. There was no information available until long after check-in time then we were told that all flights to the UK were cancelled.

We now found ourselves with no hotel accommodation and no news as to another flight time and date. We managed to get a telephone number for a hotels bureau and after nearly an hour we confirmed a room in the Spanish sector of LA about twenty minutes from the airport.

The hotel was basic but at least we each had a rooms to stay in until we heard when we could get a flight. The cost of the room with breakfast was our responsibility and had to be rebooked daily because we had no idea of a departure. We could get no information from New Zealand Airways or our travel agent every door we tried to open was impenetrable.

During the six days of our enforced stay in America my mobile phone bill amassed £435 and hotel accommodation £450. Added to this my medication ran out and I had to pay to see a Doctor and then purchase replacement medication which cost me £325.

None of this enforced expenditure has been re-imbursed as our Insurers and Air New Zealand refused to take responsibility. Unluckily the replacement medication reacted against my normal tablets and I was very poorly for the two days preceding our eventual flight home to Heathrow. Our seats were upgraded to Business Class so fortunately I had a bed to lie down on and slept during the entire journey leaving Wayne to enjoy a six course cordon bleu meal!

After wiping out the American experience and taking nearly a month to recover from the medication effects my memories of New Zealand our very vivid and I would quite happily contemplate another visit one day to tour South Island in more detail.

NEW ZEALAND SOUTH ISLAND

After staying a couple of days in Hawera we drove to Wellington Maureen coming with us to stay for two nights in a hotel prior to crossing on the ferry to South Island. We said our farewells to Maureen and did the ferry crossing in three and a half hours then caught the Alpine Express train to Christchurch.

This journey took six hours then we took a taxi to our hotel for five nights so that we could tour Christchurch and the surrounding areas.

After a good night’s sleep we picked up our hire car found a parking place with no charge and then with Wayne pushing me in my wheelchair we spent all day taking photographs and exploring the wonderful city of Christchurch. It was so English and laid back almost as if time had stopped for fifty years. It was with great sadness that later in the year we saw pictures of the total destruction to the heart of the city by a major earthquake.  Our hearts go out to all the great people we encountered during our visit who have suffered due to the devastation of their homes and work places.

The following days were spent driving round some of the beautiful countryside of South Island but there were so many sights we didn’t have time for and always said we would like to return one day and tour the Island in a camper van.

Our stay in Christchurch soon ended and it was time to start our journey home to the UK via Los Angeles. The flight was faultless but what we didn’t know was that a volcano had erupted whilst we were in the air dispersing volcanic ash into the atmosphere.

NEW ZEALAND

These last two years have been quite high lights in my retired life span. My God Daughter Maureen and her husband Kevin from New Zealand came over to stay with me for four weeks in 2009 to celebrate my 75^th birthday which was at the end of September it was her first visit since emigration and Kevin was born in New Zealand. We visited all our local points of interest especially Maureen’s birth place we also went on Euro Star to Paris and by train to Edinburgh. Gambling is quite a big feature in the lives of NZ residents so we had a day at the races and visited a dog racing stadium at Brighton. While they were here it was suggested that my friend Wayne and I go to NZ in 2010 which is exactly what we did.

Most of the arrangements except the flights were selected and bought on the internet which was quite a mammoth task in itself and took many hours. We departed from London Heathrow at 9.00.pm on March 30^th flying with Air New Zealand and had one nights stop-over at Hong Kong flying on the next day to Auckland NZ. After one nights motel stay we picked up our hire car and drove to Rotorua for another overnight stay and opportunity to photograph the local bird life and visit the sulphur pools etc.  From Rotorua we drove to Taupo visiting tourist sights on the way including waterfalls.

After a night’s sleep in Taupo we drove via the lost highway to my God daughter’s house in Hawara. How we ever found this lost road we will never know but it was over 75 kilometres long with no human habitation on the way. Even our friends in NZ had never been along it? 

While staying with Maureen and Kevin we were able to meet the rest of her family which included Letitia their daughter and Carl their son. Both have partners Carl having a little boy called Jake the apple of Grandma’s eye. We also met Maureen’s Eldest sister Helen and family, Brother John and his family, and Barbara who was born between John and Maureen. It was so good to meet up with all the family I had such close connections with when they were young.