18th October 2007.

To day is a very special day for us. Thirty three years ago today we arrived in New Zealand for the very first time.

In the UK, six weeks earlier our families were gathering on the platform of Derby Railway Station. Everyone crying, passing our 4 month old son, Jim, around for one last hug and I guess we probably looked a fairly sad bunch. Steve and his father threw our two big trunks and two cases into the baggage car of the 8.00 am Express to St. Pancras, we tearfully kissed our families goodbye and set off on the start of our Big Adventure to the other side of the world.

And it was a Big Adventure! People just didn’t hop on to planes and visit New Zealand for a couple of weeks annual holiday like they do these days. It was a long, long way and I’m sure our families thought that we were absolutely mad, as did most of our friends.

As the train rolled out of the extensive shunting yards we said goodbye to Derby, our old home town, and started to regain our enthusiasm and focus on the weeks ahead. The first part of the trip from Derby – St. Pancras was uneventful. Jim had second breakfast. ( He learnt at a very early age that when you are farming, some days it just pays to eat whenever you can.)

On arriving at St. Pancras we battled through the morning rush hour crowds and haled a taxi which took us through London to Waterloo Station, where we finally managed to board the Boat Train to Southampton. This took us as far as the Port but we still needed a taxi to get us and our few belongings the last couple of kms. to the Customs Hall.

I can’t remember how long it took us to check in. I do remember that it was a huge shed with rows and rows of counters, people and trolleys everywhere and Jim  getting impatient for lunch or maybe it was tea by that time.

You will remember the film ‘Titanic‘.  The family arrives at the docks to board and are seen staring at The Ship.  Well that was us, only the ship was The Chandris Lines Flag Ship, SS Australis.

We were just two kids from the Midlands of England, it was the biggest “boat” that we had ever seen.  Steve says -

”Of course it was”! “How many liners did you ever see in Derby”?

Of course it was not her maiden voyage, she had been built in the USA in the 1930’s as a Luxury Passenger Liner and named “America”. In the Second World War she had been commissioned as a troop carrier. But we were reassured by one of the porters telling us that she had just had a complete and major overhaul in her home port of Melbourne and she was going faster than she had done for many years. They had scraped literally thoushands of tons of barnacles from her hull.

As we struggled with cases, trunks and baby up the ramp and on to the main deck I think we sighed with the relief that we had got there in time.  Now we took our first look around at what was to become our home for the next six weeks.

To be continued: