{"id":2466,"date":"2010-10-24T23:21:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T23:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=2466"},"modified":"2011-04-12T16:00:40","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T16:00:40","slug":"the-antipodean-is-back-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=2466","title":{"rendered":"The Antipodean is back in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

About to leave Spetses<\/p><\/div>\n

Today is Saturday 20 November 2010.\u00a0 Tomorrow it will be 5 weeks since I arrived back in New Zealand.\u00a0 Life has been much busier than I anticipated it would be on my return, however, I have finally found the time to write Blog 101 about my journey home.<\/p>\n

It all began on Thursday 14 October when Costas purchased my hydrofoil ticket for departure from Spetses the following day – in his name, as he said, if he had tried to give them my name, he might still be there and anyway, he would do anything to get rid of me – yeh, right!\u00a0 That evening we arrived home from Bar Spetsa to find all four cats awaiting us in the courtyard … a first, I’m sure they knew I was leaving.\u00a0 The next day we\u00a0enjoyed our last English breakfast out for now, returned to the house, leaving\u00a0again just a little before 1500 hours to have coffee – with my pack now weighing around 20 kilos atop Costas’ bicycle.\u00a0 On to the pier, the saddest of farewells and into my seat on the Flying Dolphin XXIX where I cried and cried – two people capable of making each other\u00a0that happy should be together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ironically, after a week of inclement weather, the sky was blue and full of sunshine.\u00a0 Costas would have returned home to sleep knowing that night, life would go on in Bar Spetsa.\u00a0 For me, at least I can say it was a comfortable hydrofoil ride – had the weather that day been unfavourable, Costas would have arranged for me to travel to Athens by water taxi and taxi.\u00a0\u00a0First quick stop Ermioni on the mainland, second stop Hydra with many more passengers boarding, third stop Poros then Piraeus.<\/p>\n

As we approached Athens the skies were cloudier and soon there would be rain.\u00a0 Carrying 20 kilos on my back and another 10 kilos in my day pack, I went hunting for the X96\u00a0bus stop to the airport.\u00a0 At first I walked way too far, then\u00a0retraced my steps\u00a0virtually\u00a0all the way back, eventually finding the stop by a small park and statue.\u00a0 At 2010 hours I finally hopped on the bus, paid my Euro 3.20 and arrived at the airport around 2120 hours.<\/p>\n

Joined the\u00a0queue for Check In but then, because of the straps on my Backpack and the size of my parcel containing my treasured walking stick from the Samaria Gorge, wrapped in two\u00a0traditional floor rugs, I had to take my luggage elsewhere.\u00a0 Once free of that I went on to do my duty free shopping – filled a basket then told no, you can shop here for departures through B Gates\u00a0only and\u00a0my Gate was an A.\u00a0 So, I shopped all over again, still unable to find my favourite Greek chocolate Lacta and I learnt there is a difference when shopping to travel to non EU countries –\u00a0e.g. buy Tobacco\u00a0with a green sticker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thankfully, I had no problems with passport control then I\u00a0made my way to Gate 9,\u00a0\u00a0in plenty of time for last minute telephone calls to Costas,\u00a0Mum, family and friends on Crete and a text to\u00a0Jilly and Rick.\u00a0\u00a0On boarding the\u00a0Emirates Airbus A330-200, a quite spacious aircraft,\u00a0I found my window seat, with an older well dressed gentleman sitting beside me.\u00a0 The aeroplane was full\u00a0and eventually we left Athens at\u00a0the slightly later departure time\u00a0of 2315 hours.\u00a0 As we flew over Greek Islands,\u00a0I was\u00a0in no mood to talk with anyone – nothing was real, only images of Costas flashing through my mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along came the very much appreciated hot towels, followed by the dinner menu – I was starving having had nothing to eat since breakfast.\u00a0\u00a0I chose the lamb, asked for a red wine and left only the bread roll which as usual, was\u00a0cold – I don’t know why they bother serving them\u00a0at all.\u00a0 Then lights out and time for a snooze for those who are able to do so … I just dozed and the time passed relatively quickly although I did not appreciate the fact that someone, somewhere, was farting – not nice!<\/p>\n

Arrived in Dubai to face the usual security checks where all were requested to remove belts, shoes, watches, mobile phones and jackets …\u00a0 what a performance!\u00a0 With heavy duty free bags to carry as well as my day pack, I found a trolley then exchanged Euro 10 (50 DRM) in order to buy a bottle of Phoenix NZ Organic Lemonade for 10 DRM.\u00a0 Checked out prices of some duty free items I had purchased in Athens, only to find they were cheaper still in Dubai – never mind.\u00a0 Managed to pick up on an unsecured WiFi connection – all in all, a very long and tiring stopover.<\/p>\n

I had not realised until then that I would be travelling the remainder of my journey home on an Airbus A380-800 – an amazing aircraft – what a stroke of luck.\u00a0 Accommodating \u00a0over 500 passengers, there were three tunnels to board us all.\u00a0 First and Business classes are upstairs, I had a window seat with heaps of leg room\u00a0in the back row of the front section where Business class would normally be.\u00a0 Satellite telephone, SMS and email facilities on your personal screen as well as the ability to recharge a laptop.\u00a0 Whenever I looked at the map of the world and saw how far we had travelled away from Greece, I wanted to be sick – I was overwhelmed with feelings of sadness.\u00a0 Watching movies and listening to music to take my mind elsewhere did not work – already I was missing The Greek heaps!\u00a0 A very long, however, smooth\u00a0flight of almost 14 hours’ duration – thinking a lot, dozing and eating producing heartburn and indigestion, ending in a smooth landing in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Collected my hand luggage from the overhead locker to exit the aircraft and to pass through the usual security check.\u00a0 Now, TRANSIT PASSENGERS BEWARE!\u00a0 They applied the 100ml rule to my duty free items … still in sealed bags until that time, never mind that they had come with me from Athens to Dubai and Dubai to Sydney and would have been placed back in the same overhead locker on the very same aircraft.\u00a0 Even though I did not cross the Australian border, they confiscated from me my two bottles of 5 Star Metaxa and bottle of Grand Marnier, placed them carefully on the floor beside the large bin (no doubt in my mind that was\u00a0to\u00a0divvy them\u00a0out later).\u00a0 I was furious as I then threw the empty bags at the officer … he looked much like he could have been a Greek Australian in which case he would have known only too well about 5 Star Metaxa!\u00a0 The entire fiasco was witnessed by an Aussie guy who agreed 100% with me.\u00a0 He was a lighting designer on his way back from Milan\u00a0to Auckland where he has lived for some 10 years.\u00a0 I repeat – TRANSIT PASSENGERS BEWARE!<\/p>\n

Finally bound for Auckland and a smooth takeoff from Sydney, looking pretty as a picture on a clear, sunny morning and ever so green.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the weather in Auckland was not so wonderful and I was about to realise one of the drawbacks of flying in such a big plane – the more passengers there are, the longer the time one has to wait for luggage to come through on the conveyor belt.\u00a0 Then, of course, I was questioned about my walking stick- was it new or used?\u00a0 Did I have a tent – no.\u00a0 Did I have hiking boots – no, walking shoes.\u00a0 Okay, go over there, meaning they would then examine my stick and shoes.\u00a0 Fortunately, everything passed the test.<\/p>\n

Finally\u00a0through and I was met by my very good friends Vivienne and Dave who took me over to the Domestic Terminal.\u00a0 There we had a lovely time together over a couple of red wines, awaiting my flight to Wanganui which was delayed an hour due to high winds.\u00a0 Talk about a roller coaster ride but I was so so tired, coupled with the relaxing\u00a0affect of the wine that I could not have cared too much about anything.\u00a0 Thirty eight hours of travel\u00a0came to an end when we touched down in Wanganui, where I was met by my Mum, Dave and friends.<\/p>\n

I had an amazing journey throughout Greece\u00a0which far exceeded my dreams.\u00a0 I do wish I was still on Spetses, however, for the moment I must do what I must do here.\u00a0 Costas and I are in regular contact and as I have said all along, time will sort out all.\u00a0\u00a0I do know that I will go back again –\u00a0watch this space to\u00a0learn when.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Saturday 20 November 2010.\u00a0 Tomorrow it will be 5 weeks since I arrived back in New Zealand.\u00a0 Life has been much busier than I anticipated it would be on my return, however, I have finally found the time to write Blog 101 about my journey home. It all began on Thursday 14 October […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2578,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions\/2578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}