Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Arrival in South Africa

We made it! The ship docked at 12 noon precisely, coinciding with a gun blast from Signal Hill to mark midday. This followed a long morning of a 5 am rising to watch lumps of land mass appear in the distance, and then much waiting for more land to appear, the Cape Town harbour to come into view, a pilot to be embarked to take us the rest of the way quayside, immigration to board, and the embarkation process to happen. I don’t think today’s lunch had been part of the package deal but we were enormously grateful to be served toasted cheese and tomato in the dining saloon while we waited. After disembarkation we were taken by bus to the Royal Cape Yacht Club where we were met by a friend who is putting us up for the night, as well as the representative from the company shipping our goods to NZ, and for you islanders, Ronnie and Verona were also there to welcome us ‘home’.Once the boxes and suitcases had been sorted out we were whisked off to Mark and Sam’s place where we met Abigal, Josiah, Zachariah and Annabeth, their gorgeous and lively children. Had an awesome afternoon of catching up and yacking away – so good to have fellowship with another pastoral couple, and the boys had a great time with their four new friends. Still experiencing sealegs and battling to walk straight – why does the ground keep tilting and undulating?

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