Friday 28^th November

Our luck was with us today – just everything turned out right – expensive but right. After searching around we discovered that only one line covered India to New Zealand. British India Steamship, so booked a car passage on the “Juna” leaving 20^th December arriving Auckland and Wellington 25^th January. Went to Clearing Agent and he said he could clear car through customs etc by Monday.

In the clearing house we met a Lufthansa engineer who said that if we got our ticket via them we should get a free hotel somewhere. Along to their smart new office and sure enough true, so we’re booked via Hong Kong and Manila and Sydney to Christchurch arriving on December 4^th. The engineer invited us back to his house for dinner on Monday night.

After lunch we got the tickets endorsed by Air India and started packing the trunks. We hoped to bring one of the trunks with us but after weighing everything in the Lufthansa office the weight was 3 kilos over so we shall send two trunks by sea and take suitcases with us. Back to Salvation Army to finish packing when an Indian burst into the room wanting to buy things (we had to be careful as we nearly had enough rupees after selling 10 colour films – 15/- profit each). We sold him the headrest, 2 chairs and some old aerosols – none of which we were taking for 110 rupees – great!!

A finished packing one trunk after dinner so after read, a late night’s sleep.