LONDON – DOVER – 27 August
This trip deserves special mention!! Moya, the Organised One, booked our taxi to take us to the Station early in the week for Friday at 8.30am which would enable us to get the underground and walk to the bus station in ample time for the 10.30am departure. Friday dawned wet and of course the taxi never arrived. To the rescue came Shelley. She rang another company and they quickly despatched a cab. Unfortunately time had moved on and we had to get the taxi to the bus station which of course was a way more expensive. The original company when contacted, merely said “We have had a busy morning.” Anyways into the new taxi we went and the driver told us he was Nigerian and only interested in football not cricket. He was really pleasant until someone behind us tooted and then he yelled, “What’s wrong with you?” About 100 metres further on the same car tooted. Our driver pulled the taxi over, the other driver also stopped next to us, down went the windows, and a verbal started. The other driver also appeared Nigerian. The tooting driver spat at our driver who spat back, all this over a young child who was in the car. Honour seemed to have been restored but the remainder of our journey was spent in silence!! We were just glad to get to the bus station and get to Dover where our ship awaited.
As we were going through Customs the Officer there said “New Zealand – just a minute someone here would like to speak to you”, and over came another woman who had been to New Zealand and wanted to share her experiences. Then as we started to go through again she rushed up and said, “Hang on there is someone else who wants to talk to you”, and over came another woman who had a relative either in or just going to NZ. They were so interested in talking to us, I reckon we could have smuggled anything on board. Anyway on board we got and soon settled into our stateroom to sail off beneath the White Cliffs for our latest adventure.