Departing for New Zealand was a mix of excitement and sadness, anticipating starting a new life in a far off land and joining Alex, after being apart for a year along with sadness at leaving my parents behind.
My Mother and two friends traveled with me to Kilmarnock where we caught the bus to London. Alex's sister Nan, who was also emigrating met me there.
Many tears were shed before the bus drove off leaving my mother and friends behind.
On arriving in London, we caught the train to Tilbury and after visiting customs, we were soon on our way to the ship that would deliver us to our new lives in a land faraway. On board we shared a small two berthed cabin, which was basic to say the least. The ship was vast and we often got lost in the many corridors. I was violently sick for a couple of weeks due to sea sickness.
First port of call was Gibraltar but unfortunately we didn't get off as we were late leaving Tilbury due to fog and only docked to pick up mail. On the 31st December we went ashore in Naples for a few hours, which was still badly damaged from the war but for all that it was interesting and we did a little shopping. There were no issues about overweight baggage back then!
We dressed for the party onboard the liner; a dinner dance to bring in the new year of 1954. In between ports, there was always an abundance of things do on the ship. We played deck games, swam, sunbathed, read plenty of books in the library or sit in one of the little bars and have a drink with other passengers. After dinner there were always films, concerts, dances or back in the bar having a chat and most likely a singsong.
We traveled through the Suez Canal with sand dunes as far as the eye could see, through the Red Sea to Aden, across the Arabian Sea to Colombo, now known as Sri Lanka then over the Indian Ocean to Fremantle.
The ship arrived in Melbourne where we could disembark for a while. We lost a passenger there and to this day I dont know what became of her. She went into port and never returned. Her disappearance was covered in the newspapers. We docked at Sydney, where I spent five days with relations who had emigrated there five years previously. We enjoyed swimming on Bondi Beach which was exciting for two Scottish lassies so far away from home.
On the 26th January we boarded the NZ Line Monowai for Wellington NZ. We had dinner the first night then due to treacherous waters spent the rest of the trip being sick. From Wellington we had to get the 6pm over night ferry to Lyttleton in the South Island followed by a short ride to Christchurch to catch the Invercargill express, which stopped at every station. Twelve hours by train and finally we arrived at what would be my new home.
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