Its been a month since we left and so much has happened that it sometimes seems like six! We went to New York to stay a couple of days with friends and spent the two days "doing" New York on foot. We went along, up, down, in and out of almost everywhere. New York was smaller than we at first imagined, but really needs a good week or two to do it justice. One highlight was a conducted trip around the Waldorf Astoria hotel. What an experience! We were shown the entire "back room" set up particularly the food services where over 2000 meals are produced three times a day. There was one preparation room simply dedicated to soup!! Our friends had a small apartment overlooking Manhattan which was most attractive and afforded magnificent views.
We took the second and third of our 12 projected flights to Miami and then to Trinidad. American Airlines with whom we flew seemed to be a bit less organised than good old BA. At one stage they had too many people on the plane and were offering $1000 dollar vouchers for people to get off the plane and take another later flight. We were nearly killed in the rush!
Trinidad was a lovely warm and friendly island. Our hotel was some way from the cricket ground which was the prime object of our visit and it was not unusual for a private motorist to stop and give us a lift just so he could discuss the cricket with someone! Almost everyone carried a transistor tuned into the ball by ball commentary of the match. On the Sunday we went into Port of Spain where there was a delightful carnival pageant of children in fancy dress... and what fancy dress it was. The costumes looked as if the parents had been working on them for months; they were glorious in colour and size. (Note Look out St George's for the May fete - we may have some ideas!) One or two tots could barely stand against the warm wind which was blowing. The temperature was about 90°? We saw a church door open and went in, recognising our St George's form of service wafting out through the open door. The music was identical to our own and the words the same as well. We joined in fully but only at the consecration time did we discover that the church was Roman Catholic. However we continued to join in. By the way they had TWO collections during the one service!! The theme was "Blessed are the poor", and most were, coming from a land where the average weekly wage is a very few pounds. However they were a happy go lucky lot. The cricket was good, especially as England finally won. Some say it was as a result of the English lady in the amazing yellow and red striped hat who insisted on spurring her team on with frequent and loud blows on a conch shell!! We understand from recent phone calls that some of you watching Sky-TV identified the lady as Jane, and right you were. She had accepted the challenge of a local conch shell blower and he was so amazed at her ability that he called the Sky cameras over for a shot and left the shell with Jane to record each English success.
Sadly we left Trinidad after too short a time and started on the long haul to New Zealand which was to take us back into the USA again and then on the long overnight flight from Los Angeles to Auckland during which we lost Wednesday February l8th forever due to the International date line. It struck us that if war had broken out or the world ended on that day we would not have been part of it!
We were met at Auckland International Airport by relatives and started what was to be a super three weeks stay in New Z.. We decided to hire a campervan to provide transport, a base and overnight accommodation. It was a good move though we later found out that we could have found a cheaper supplier had we looked harder. We spent two weeks criss-crossing both islands doing all the OK tourist things. Rotorua with its hot bubbling springs, mud pools, and steaming geysers erupting along the roadside as you drove, was amazing. Wellington harbour is a really beautiful sight, as was the magnificent Marlborough Sounds. Guess what... on the boat from Wellington to Picton in the South Island we met Jennifer DURSLEY!!! Small world isn't it. We went to church in Picton on the South Island; it was Lent and their Harvest Festival!!!; also a baptism. The service was really strange and did not follow ours in any way at all. The only hymn we knew was We Plough The Fields and Scatter. However the folks there were very kind and the Vicar said he would send greetings from his church to ours on the Internet. I do hope you received them.
We went to see our first Day/Night Cricket match, New Zealand against Zimbabwe. It was a frenetic evening with loud rock music, plenty of young enjoying the spectacle and the amazing sight of a cricket match in full swing with a black sky and full moon.
We went Whale watching and saw nine whales. We went to Queenstown which is known as the adventure capital of the world; there you can bungy jump, paracend, jet ski, helicopter ride to the glaciers and snow line, and do all sorts of other death defying things. Needless to say Jane and I were mere spectators at these events, but there is no doubt that Queenstown is an exciting place to visit, especially for the young.
The West Coast of South Island was suffering from floods and torrents whilst a few miles away over the mountains the East coast is under drought!! The NZ'rs are still a long way from the sort of infrastructure that we have in England. The roads are poor (no dual carriageways) and often peter out into gravel tracks with little or no notice. The cars are old - so old in fact that general traffic is a transport of delight to someone who remembers the English cars of the 50s and 60s. The West Coast has a magnificent rugged coastline and spectacular sights of waves pounding seashores and, at one place (Pancake Rocks) crashing up through fissures in the rocks and spraying some distances.
So now it's on to Australia. I hope that you have enjoyed this potted history of our visit so far and I hope that I can add a second episode towards the end of our trip.
Our love and best wishes to all.
written by Jane and Tony Rice-Oxley
For those of you not in the know, Jennifer is the daughter of Chris Dursley, an ex-Church Warden of St George's.
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page last updated 1 APRIL 1998