As today is a traveling day the photograph is from the idyllic last mile of the Milford Track - if only the rest had been so flat, easy and wide.....but it wouldn't have been as magnificent and such a fulfilling challenge if it were!
We had a lazy start as our taxi to the airport was not until 1030am - French toast and poached pear for breakfast was probably the second best French toast I have ever had - after the crispy French toast in China in the 1990's.
All the flights were on time (Queenstown- Wellington - Melbourne - Hobart) and if not when they left they had caught up by the time we arrived - all the transfers through were effortless and quick particularly the international entry to Australia in Melbourne and our transfer to our flight to Hobart. We duly declared the tea and hot chocolate and showed them our nice clean hiking boots and were given a clean bill of health and sped through giving us time for an iced coffee before our flight. On arrival in Hobart John sorted out the car hire while I collected the bags and we were off to the Kingston hotel our first stop. The only glitch was the key wasn't where they had said it would be - under the ice machine - so after several minutes grovelling to no avail on my hands and knees I realised I had to phone the caretaker. The number was on the door but I had to work out the code from a UK phone - not easy but Google was a great help; when I had cracked it - he brought the key to us very quickly and after the quick transfer of luggage and the mandatory cup of tea we flaked out.