The End of the Golden Weather!

Well some of us are now back in good ol' NZ and some are further afield.
We sadly packed our bags, loaded them into the car ( bit of a tight squeeze) and set off in the fairly early morning before the heat, across the Island to Larnaca which we hadn't visited except passing through on our first day.

As we had done previously we stayed on the secondary roads instead of the motorways (absolutely fabulous by the way) but boring, and wound our way along the coast through little villages and citrus and banana plantations, stopped in at a beach resort - the last word in luxury and peopled by Russians, and Northern European holidaymakers as opposed to Coral Bay peopled by British tourists.  We didn't stay long as it is not really our scene and pressed on past Aphrodite's birthplace - one of three islands around which you have to swim three times in the full moon in order to get your man!!!   Helloooooo!!

We passed through the British Army Base - houses built in English style, playing fields, and village greens all surrounded by barbed wire - a reminder that this is not altogether the peaceful island it appears - it is of vital importance and immensely strategic in location to a great many interested countries.

We found a lovely little cafe on the edge of a village - local cuisine cooked by the owner and we sat under a tree and enjoyed a spectacular final lunch before pressing on to the Airport where we dropped Annie and Bet off to catch their flight to UK mid afternoon,while the rest of us made a quick sortie into Larnaca, found the waterfront and enjoyed a wander along through the bazaars and had a cool drink in one of the many cafes on the beach.  We also visited the Church of St Lazarus - Greek Orthodox with its spectacular icons  and his stone coffin in the crypt under the elaborate altar. Down the road and across from the immaculate church was a very old mosque - one of the first in Cyrus - being renovated and closed to the public and worshippers at this stage. Both seem to illustrate the differences between Western Christianity and Islam.
We dropped the car as instructed at the airport and checked in only to find that the flight was delayed and finally left Cyprus and our holiday about 10pm....
This meant we arrived into Dubai at 3am - overnight hotel and out again at 6.30am to fly to Melbourne where we turned around and landed in ADELAIDE!!! to spend nearly 4 hours sitting on the tarmac waiting for fog to lift in Melbourne - NOBODY lives in Adelaide - there was not a soul around on that Sunday and we were not allowed off as there were no international facilities available there.

Consequently we finally arrived into Auckland in the evening and missed our connection to Wn and Pat and I had to overnight in Airport hotel before getting into Wn late morning Monday. Tricia was picked up to go to Tauranga Monday morning.

Quite an inauspicious end to our wonderful odyssey but it in no way detracted from the thrill of the trip - the fun we had and the absolute memory of places and people who live in a completely contrasting world to ours.

The privilege of seeing and experiencing their world was all ours!