Wellington departure

It's Saturday five am and I am through the customs, security and duty free. Wellington is certainly a simple airport to negotiate. My private taxi, instead of the Shuttle, was a charming Indian who was right on time. I was also, but not after a wee drama of not finding my Master Travel Card, the essential item I need for my overseas currency. I looked everywhere, it should have been with other cards but I couldn't find it anywhere. I was getting a bit stressed, began to HU of course, and looked through old wallets and found the duplicate which I had forgeotten I had.. This would suffice, it was already time for the taxi.

All packed I rushed downstairs and all was well. Then on rechecking my cards at the airport I discover to my relief that the elusive card was always there, but stuck close to another one avoiding sight.Such things happen when you have more than one card. So my packing was all under control. I am trying to take as little luggage as possible although I am doing three countries (including Tassie!) and two hemispheres in five weeks. It will be a good test of my travel acumen.

A nice coffee and croissant at the airport caffé

Attentive service

Great coffee and ham and cheese croissant.the Kiwis are still the best for food.

New Zealand is readyfor a Royal Commission too. Like Australia, the US and Ireland where Royal Commissions have discovered thousands of abused children and hundreds of guilty priests, the Catholic Church in particular is responsible for accepting blame and it is not doing it at all. Four acknowledged paedophile priests in New Zealand are still alive and unchallenged. It is a terrible state of affairs where the victims are so traumatised that they have no trust in either the police or the Catholic Church to revisit their horrific life-changing experiences. They cannot talk about it in court. What can these poor people do? In many cases the victims were paid some pay-out money to keep them silent, that, in itself is a serious crime and the Catholic Church should be held accountable.

I have passed the excellent South Australian report on to K who himself was abused as a child and has had no therapy or recogniton of the associated trauma. Deep down these people never lose the effect of their loss of innocence and many continue with a serious feeling of guilt for participating in what was never their fault. The victim is never guity. I am hoping that K might discover in the article something in common with other abused victims and become able to express his anger or whatever he feels about it. Bottling it up is not the answer.