Around the world, April 2007 back home

29th April to 1st May, 2007 - Home sweet home

Well that was it for this time. A 34 days trip came to its end and Sunday night it was time for me to pack my bags and head towards the airport for the last leg of my trip back to Sydney.

When leaving Hawaii, bound for Sydney, things are often a bit confusing as far as time/date is concerned. The flight usually leaves just before midnight. You then fly into the next day and then, you lose almost a day because of the 20 hours time difference. Hence all those hours which you have gained bit by bit on your way from Australia to Europe and America are gone in one fell swoop when returning from Hawaii to Sydney.

The original plan had been to board a plane of Fiji Air and take a flight to Nadi, have four hours on the ground and then another five hours to Sydney. Somehow the plans of Fiji Air had become a bit untangled and basically there was no flight. Pity for those few travellers who were looking forward to spending some time on Fiji. For me it was a simple thing, being re-booked on a Canada Air flight directly to Sydney, which got me back home some 7 hours earlier than expected. And since the plane was fairly empty, I had the entire row of seats to myself, which allowed for some stretching out and sleeping in relative comfort.

There was just one last thing I had to master somehow and that was the fact that I was carrying about 600 gram of Tobacco with me where only 250 grams are allowed without paying a hefty tax fine on the whole lot. It's one of those situation which I have been through before and where I know that honesty, at least partial honesty usually helps.

So when it came to filling in the immigration form I made a yes tick at flowers, shells etc because I was carrying one of those shell necklaces with me which I was given in Hawaii. But I kept mum about my highly excessive tobacco load. And it worked. Upon going voluntarily to the 'something to declare' gate and explaining to the girl at the controls with a slightly anxious voice and demeanour that I had infact a necklace of Hawaiian shells in the front of my mini oyster, she smiled in the most benign manner and let me go directly to the exit, without my luggage being x-rayed or inspected at all.

Hence for the next few months I will be feasting on duty free tobacco reserves which have greatly been enhanced by my house sitters, who together imported the legal quantity of 250 gram each.

And now I am back in Green Point Palace, my home and can look back on a trip with many highlights, encounters with many friends and family around the world, many re-visited places and some new ones and with a plan in the drawer for the next trip.

My old friend Reinold and I once developed the principle that one should not embark on a trip without having plans for the next one. I have stuck to this principle faithfully for the last 40 years.

But about the next one, later.