Mum and I flew from Dunedin via Christchurch to Auckland where we spent the final days of our holidays in the City of Sails. It was a strange feeling on the Thursday driving out to Auckland Airport and saying Bon Voyage to Mum. It seemed to have taken over a year to talk her into coming out to visit and now, suddenly it was all over. Before she'd arrived, four weeks sounded like a long time (will she get bored? will we drive each other mental? will our phone bill go through the roof?!) and yet here we were having travelled the length and breadth of the country together and saying our goodbyes at the airport before we knew it.
To be honest, there's no way Mum and I could (would?) have spent so much time together had I still been living in Scotland - how would we have ever found the time and, sadly, why would we have bothered? - (FOUR weeks?!!!) I'm so pleased that Iain and my's decision to live on the other side of the world inspired Mum to do something a bit different and that I've been able to share those experiences with her. Being almost (shhhh!) seventy, getting on a plane - on your tod - to fly to Dubai for an overnight stay then onto Melbourne and finally on to Auckland is a massive undertaking. When I think about it, it was a massive undertaking for Iain and I when we did it for the first time two years ago so Jinty's jaunt has been pretty impressive. Anyway, for a long time I doubted whether we'd ever see her in NZ but she finally bit the bullet and it was amazing having her here, showing her the life we've built, spending time together and of course travelling around and seeing so much of this little country 11,117 miles from Garrowhill.
As you can imagine, it was a difficult goodbye at International Departures but I've got a sneaky feeling she might need to come back. - She still hasn't got her hands on a T.L.
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