Apparently, if you stick your finger right up your nose and pick with gusto, whilst looking the other way, no one can see you.

So thought the man in the international check-in queue at Christchurch Airport Saturday morning.

MoD and I were heading off on our latest travel adventure.

Melbourne to see the whanau, then a nice little 15 day cruise commencing in Amsterdam and ending in Budapest.

Followed by a couple of days in London seeing MoD’s youngest daughter.

The fact that I am extremely lucky and living an extraordinary life isn’t lost on me.

I am incredibly grateful.

So, once I recovered from the nose picker I settled into a nice little Air New Zealand flight across the deetch.

After the mandatory Air New Zealand lounge experience.

Yes, I was actually eating food at 4.30am.

It really is very pleasant having a husband with gold member status. The whole process of travelling to Aus is pleasant. It’s a 7 minute Uber from our place to the airport, a simple check in, even with 27 days worth of luggage, then a less than four hour flight into my favourite city – Melbourne.

To our stunned surprise, the baggage handlers in Melbourne weren’t asleep and we were out of the door, luggage in hand within 15 minutes.

I know many seasoned travellers will simply not believe that.

It’s a totally true story.

First stop, pick up ‘our’ car from our soon to be daughter in law at her work place in Port Melbourne.

I had warned MoD it was going to be hot, not that he didn’t know. He does like to check his weather app. Frequently. Almost as frequently as he likes to monitor his sleep app.

And taunt me with how good he sleeps.

Seriously the man could sleep through a grenade.

So jealous.

Anyway in Melbourne the weather was set for a ‘noice’ 38 degrees.

That’s 100 in Fahrenheit my American family and friends.

I was loving myself silly.

MoD on the other hand did not love himself, nor probably me.

For the three days we were in Ballarat and Melbourne it remained highs of over 35.

It’s the Australian summers I grew up with.

Even though it’s now autumn.

Oh well……no such thing as global warming you say???

Ho hum to that. Think again.

I’ve missed you Aussie. I’ve missed your oppressive heat.

I’ve missed being able to send a snap of the car temperature sitting at 42 to MoD when he wasn’t with me.

I’ve missed the sweat and stickiness.

Fortunately for MoD of course, for the three days we have been in Aussie, it didn’t get beyond 38.

Lucky.

Anyho…….

We had a lovely visit, spending quality time with besties and family.

The Ballarat Begonia Festival is in full swing.

In my day the festival began on the Thursday and finished on the Monday week, 11 days later, with a huge parade through Sturt Street.

It’s now a 3 day labour weekend event but absolutely worth a visit. The gardens are looking absolutely spectacular, there are markets and some lovely little food and coffee stalls.

Both Saturday night and Sunday night found us eating out – Grainery Lane in Armstrong Street and Nolans at the Good Shed in the Ballarat Railway station.

Both highly recommended.

On Monday, we had some time to kill before heading to the airport so we took in a little of what St Kilda has to offer. Always a great place St Kilda, you just can’t go wrong there.

Monday afternoon we took an Uber out to the airport to meet 4 of the group of 8 going on this cruise. Two of us are already there and have been for three weeks. We will meet Julie and Gary in Amsterdam. Can’t wait!!

So here we are ready to board our flight and start another amazing adventure.

My loyal twelve followers, I am sorry if this is short, sweet and maybe not fluid.

We are about to embark on an 8.5 hour, then a 14 hour flight.

I need to conserve my energy so I can snore through it all.

Hopefully my next blogs will make up for this one.

Stay tuned.