New Zealand Ski Trip: trip to date…

The trip to date has gone very smoothly.

Flight from the UK to Perth, Australia was uneventful. The flight from Perth to Darwin was equally uneventful, but also magnificent as it showed the size of Australia.

The train journey from Darwin to Adelaide (the Ghan) was amazing as it really did highlight the size and dryness of the vast country.

The coast road from Adelaide to Melbourne is spectacular with some magnificent views.

The Coast Road – the Twelve Apostles (although there are no longer 12)

Melbourne was a fun and interesting town. Very lively with a lot going on.

The taxi trip to Melbourne Airport was one of the most interesting taxi rides of my life.

The taxi was called for 4 am, and I arrived in the hotel lobby at 4 am to be greeted by the hotel night manager having a full-blown argument with the taxi driver. At which point the manager stated he would not allow us to go with the taxi driver, and said he had called another. There then followed the bizarre experience of having two taxi drivers, the original pleading to take us to the airport, the second drive saying he would take us, and a hotel manager trying to prevent us going with the first driver. The final result was we got in to the second cab, that then proceeded to race to the airport at maximum speed as he was worried about being chased by the first driver… all very odd.