Month: October 2025

PC 463 More from Down Under

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Other highlights from our time in Auckland were attending a hot yoga session in the Hiyoga studio on Queens Street, experiencing the local rail network when we went out to Des & Gleneth’s in Meadowbank for supper, seeing Cornwall Park where we met Michael & Angela and Des & Gleneth for lunch in The Bistro, and being lucky enough to stay in the Sofitel Viaduct Hotel, which was very central and comfortable. During our time in Auckland, England’s Women’s team The Lionesses played Canada in the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday 27th September. Cousin Michael in Victoria on Vancouver Island found a pub at 0800 local time to watch the match; in Auckland the time for the kick-off was at 0400 local on the Sunday, so I watched the highlights!

After checking out of our hotel, we picked up a hire car and drove down to Rotorua. Known for its lively geothermal activity, it’s an area of New Zealand I wanted Celina to see. Of course, there is so much of New Zealand that’s gorgeous; another two hours’ drive further south we could have seen Mount Ruapehu, one of the country’s largest volcanos and Lake Taupo.

Mount Ruapehu

Rotorua is also the home of distant cousin Peter & Gwenda Russell and their daughter Anna & husband Paul. We checked in to the On the Point hotel with its glorious view across the lake ….

… and drove out to their home. I’d first met Peter & Gwenda in London almost twenty years ago, been to stay in their then house in Tauranga and now find them co-located with their daughter Anna. How we live out our later years is a challenge for all of us; The Russells are a good example of how to do it. Gwenda developed a huge interest in our Nation family story and remains curious and enthusiastic, adding for instance a little colour where none existed.

Anna & Paul recommended we visit Te Puia – ‘a place that changes you’ – and it did just that the following morning. Patrick, our engaging Māori guide,

took us first to the New Zealand Māori Arts & Crafts Institute, where students are trained in carving and weaving, using traditional techniques.

A Master craftsman was concentrating on a little wood carving while elsewhere an apprentice was sharpening a chisel. The craftswomen weave beautiful bags, made from New Zealand flax, but they are expensive; for instance, the second left on the bottom row around £210.

I found the whole enterprise fascinating and, in another life, might have become a student!

The Kiwi, a small flightless bird, is recognised as an icon of New Zealand and the human population are often referred to as Kiwis. It’s the smallest of the ‘ratites’ family, which includes ostriches, emus and rheas. In Te Puia there are a number of these nocturnal birds in a carefully controlled habitat. Obviously, photography is forbidden in their hide but this photograph shows a stuffed bird and its eggs. Think the eggs rather large for a small bird; must be painful?

Mud pools, grey and bubbling, …….

…… form the backdrop to the Pōhutu geyser, which erupts once or twice an hour. It’s easy to become completely mesmerised by the constantly evolving geothermal landscape but eventually we had to move on.

We left, as the brochure suggests, changed, thoughtful,

.. and drove back to Auckland.

As you do when you hire a car, you look for the last possible petrol station, so you deliver the car back with a full tank of fuel. We had a very new Yaris ‘something’ and I knew the fuel cap was on the passenger side of the car. We pulled up to the pump, I walked around to the panel covering the fuel cap and pressed ….. and pressed …. and pulled ….. and pressed again …… I looked in the car for some lever ….. couldn’t find one, went back and pressed again. Just then James, or Nick or Good Samaritan appeared; filling up his own truck, he’d seen me making a fool of myself, Googled the make of my car and came around and said: “Oh! There’s a level under the dash somewhere” …. and so there was, not obvious (obviously!).  

We caught an Air New Zealand flight to Christchurch, a city a third of the way down South Island and, glancing out of the window as we crossed the coast, I could make out Farewell Spit where great grandmother Eve was shipwrecked in 1877. (See PCs 169 Shifting Sands & Feathers and 170 100% Pure New Zealand January 2020)

New Zealand lies on one of the many fault lines of the earth’s crust, this one between the Indo-Australian and Pacific Plates, part of the Pacific Basin Ring of Fire. To keep it in perspective, about 14,000 earthquakes occur in and around the country each year, of which some 175 are big enough to be felt. Within living memory, the February 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, remains the country’s deadliest natural disaster. Two hundred and fifty-six people died when the quake, with a magnitude of 7.8, devasted the Hawke’s Bay region; aftershocks continued for two weeks.

The disaster prompted a review of the country’s building codes, deemed woefully inadequate. By way of illustration, today there are only four buildings in the Hawke’s Bay region taller than five storeys. In Christchurch on 22nd February 2011, a total of 185 people died, more that 7000 were injured and over 10,000 made homeless when a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the city. (Note 1) It caused over NZ$52.2 billion’s worth of damage.

If you live in a part of the world which is prone to earthquakes, there’s not much you can do about it, except be vigilant ….. and maybe have a ‘Go Bag’ always handy! We were planning to stay for a few days in Christchurch, so the topic wasn’t mentioned – a little like not watching an aeroplane disaster film when you’re about to fly somewhere!

Continues in PC 464 ….. next week

Richard 31st October 2025

Hove

www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

Note 1 Seventeen days before the first Nation family get together in Auckland.

PC 462 Western Australia to New Zealand.

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The twenty-metre-tall Cape Naturaliste lighthouse was activated in 1904, became fully automated in 1978 but remained fully staffed until 1996. Before automation, the rotation of the light was achieved by a gearing system whose weight was wound up (just like the pendulum of a grandfather clock) every 45 minutes. Staff watches were 4 hours on, eight off, every day of the year.

Whales in Alaska

Celina and I have seen whales off the coast in Alaska (see PCs 44 and 45 June 2015) and in WA we were lucky enough to be here at the start of the annual whale migration, from their wintering north of Australia where they calved, to their summer feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean. Whilst you could see them surfacing and breathing, they were so far offshore that no iPhone photograph was going to do more than capture a moment of broken water in the distance. Even so, quite magical!

On the way back to Cape Lodge we stopped off at the beach at Yallingup. My brother-in-law Carlos would have loved the surf.

At the lodge Josefinna had messaged us to say she’d seen some kangaroos up near the entrance. We found three, but leaving the following day we found more than a dozen up near Petra’s Olive Oil plantation.

In my last postcard I mentioned that the Aboriginal people have six seasons. Just for interest, and they vary throughout WA and across Australia, the Wadandi’s Noongar are Birak (hot & dry) December and January; Bunuru (warm easterly wind) February and March; Djeran (Cool and pleasant) April and May; Makuru (Cold and wet) June and July; Djilba (Cold lessening rain) August and September; and Kambarang (longer dry periods) October and November. I rather like this, although I wonder how much climate change will alter them.

Acceptance by the settlers of Australia of the Aboriginal people and their beliefs is everywhere. For instance, this is a footnote on the Cape Lodge welcome letter: “We acknowledge the Wadandi people, the Traditional Owners of the land and waterways on which we operate. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.”

Back to Perth for our evening flight to Auckland. Ms Francisquinha was very chuffed as one of the border force officers found a stamp for her passport.

Another four-hour time shift saw us arrive in a very wet dawn in Auckland at 0600 (0200 WA Time!). New Zealand has extremely strict environmental laws, basically forbidding one to bring in anything! Celina surrendered her half-opened Lindt chocolate or might have found herself fined hundreds of dollars.

Auckland’s Sky Tower

This is not the first time Celina and I have been together to New Zealand. In January 2017 we stayed in the Coromandel at Whitianga (PC 88) and in 2019 explored Farewell Spit and Marlborough Sounds, on the northern coast of South Island (PC 169 Shifting Sands & Feathers and PC 170 100% Pure New Zealand). This year’s visit was to attend the ‘Celebration of Life’ of Dinah Warren. She had died in April this year and her five children had organised a ‘get together’ at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland.

Auckland marina

In this photograph taken towards the end of the celebration, you will notice on the far wall on the right what looks like a framed pair of red socks.

These belonged to Peter Blake.

Peter hanging up the red socks

For an explanation see Note 1 below.

Back in March 2011 I had organised, with others, the first Nation get together, deliberately coinciding with the 130th anniversary of the death of my great great grandfather Henry Matthew Nation (HMN). In the same hotel in Parnell was one Dinah Warren (HMN was her great grandfather) and she persuaded me to help her get some flowers to put around the plaque we had placed on his grave.

On this trip Des & Gleneth Laery took us out to St Stephen’s Cemetery to see HMN’s grave.

I dug out the group photograph from March 2011

Dinah Warren is directly behind me!

Regular readers of these scribbles will know all about Francisquinha, our stuffed rabbit with her own personality and passport, who accompanies us on our travels (see PC 172 Francisquinha February 2020 and PC 217 ‘My Week – Francisquinha February 2021).

In the ‘order of tribute’ booklet for Dinah’s celebration was an extract from her favourite story, The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. It read: ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you’re Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose on your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.’

Her grandchildren believed ‘Dinah’s greatest gift of her life was being Real, being Real through being loved. She believed that’s how we all become real – not by how we look, but by loving deeply, and being loved, even as life wears us in (sic).’

I only met Dinah a couple of times, once in London and then when we bought those lilies. But I, and Francisquinha who has read the story, think this is a great way to be remembered, so I had to include it in this postcard.

Richard 24th October 2025 (My birthday!)

Hove

http://www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

Note 1 Thanks to Wikipedia (!) Sir Peter James Blake KBE (1 October 1948 – 5 December 2001) was a New Zealand yachtsman who won the 1989–1990 Whitbread Round the World Race, held the Jules Verne Trophy from 1994 to 1997 by setting the around-the-world sailing record as co-skipper of ENZA New Zealand along with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, and led New Zealand to successive victories in the America’s Cup. In the 1995 America’s Cup challenge, Peter Blake wore some red socks his wife had given him; the team made a clean sweep, beating American Dennis Conner 5-0 …. and the red socks became Peter’s trademark. Peter Blake was shot and killed by pirates while monitoring environment change on the Amazon River on 5 December 2001. He was 53 years old.

PC 461 Bumped into Sami

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There’s been so much to write about from our time in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand that I wondered whether I should pause this week and scribble about something else. Coincidentally I bumped into Sami outside Gail’s at the bottom of George Street here in central Hove the other afternoon, so we popped in for a small cake and a coffee; walking to The Hope Café would take too long!

Luana, a Brazilian living in Hove, was not on shift; they have a high turnover of staff and I don’t recognise anyone, then the local manager Steve comes down from upstairs. It’s quieter on the first floor so we go up there!

Sami starts the chit-chat.

“Good to get a fresh perspective on life through travelling, isn’t it? I know I certainly do and you know what, people moan about the state of the United Kingdom, but every country has issues, often exactly the same as ours!”.

“You’re right, Sami. Talking to a relative who works in the health care system in Rotorua in New Zealand, about the crisis in the young and their ‘mental health’, she says it’s exactly the same there. Most have been allowed to opt out of working, whereas they should be encouraged to opt in! Whilst I was in New Zealand I read of the very interesting developments here with regard to the use of weight-loss drugs to combat obesity.”

“You thinking of our gallant Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting?”

“Indeed. He wants to make these weight-loss drugs more freely available through the NHS. Personally, I think this is absolutely the wrong approach to tackling the country’s fat-verging-on-obesity crisis. Then I read Emma Duncan’s column in The Times ‘The UK’s Addiction to State benefits can be broken’. Think she’s bang on when she writes: “Although genes play a role, the primary determinants of obesity are what you eat, how much you eat and how much you exercise. Obesity is thus largely a matter of personal choice. Unfortunately, the government is reluctant to conduct a campaign like the one on the dangers of smoking, because it fears that fat people would be offended by the implication that they are responsible for their excess weight.” And you’ve heard my views before. Unless you are force-fed, you alone are responsible for putting food into your mouth!”

“I saw this the other morning in an NHS hospital waiting room; the left hand one stopped me in my tracks! Sign of the times huh!”

“OMG! No way?”

“Ah! Yes! ‘Personal Choice’. Isn’t that the one of the very basic differences between socialism and conservatism? Socialism regards people as the victims of impersonal economic forces. Conservatism sees them as individuals in charge of their own destiny. Labour voters are much likelier to believe that “people’s success in life depends mostly on factors beyond their control”; Conservatives that it is the consequence of “their own merit and efforts”. Then we have this ridiculous nonsense about ‘mental health’. Because political parties need voters’ approval, they are unwilling to tell people uncomfortable truths — such as that feeling anxious and stressed is a normal part of working life! Have you written any letters to The Times recently Richard?”

“Funnily enough …… being married to a Brazilian encourages me to keep up-to-date about their macro issues, like the trial of ex-President Bolsonaro. I read this in The Times on the 12th September: “Bolsonaro will not be jailed immediately. He will remain under house arrest at his apartment within a gated compound in the capital, Brasilia. ­According to Brazilian law, a full appeal against the conviction is not possible because only one judge disagreed with the unanimous decision.”

“And you immediately thought it wasn’t a unanimous decision if one judge disagreed?”

“Exactly! Sadly, The Times didn’t publish my short letter. Then I realised that when you pronounce ‘unanimous’, it starts with a ‘you’ sound, whereas for instance ‘unambiguous’ starts with a ‘un’ sound. This is the English language, in all its complexity of pronunciation; then I thought of usual (you!) or unusual (un). Fascinating!”

“Whatever floats your boat!”

“Incidentally, Sami, do you have a will, outlining what should happen to your assets when you die?”

“Oh! Yes. Doesn’t take long and it makes sense, helping your executor sort out your estate. Why do you ask?”

“Families become complicated sometimes. We know of someone who settled in another country and told their father they didn’t want any share in his estate. For whatever reason, he either didn’t believe them, wanted to show his generosity, however misplaced, or didn’t make a will. Now they are continually being drawn back to sort out some legal tangle. There’s a lesson here; a will makes matters easier for those you leave behind.”

“Richard, have been meaning to ask you; when did you I start adding the geographic location of where your postcards are sent from, which, if it’s one about travel, maybe completely different?”

“I guess trying to be accurate! In years gone by I remember buying postcards abroad and, if the shop didn’t have sell stamps, forget to buy them somewhere else. I would find them in my suitcase when I got home and post them using a British stamp. Then I wondered what the recipient would have preferred, the photograph showing some exotic location, the foreign stamp or the simple message ‘thinking of you/wish you were here’.

“You still obsessed with your hot yoga?”

“Actually, I am and it’s one obsession I am happy to be controlled by. Great for staying reasonably fit, good for its mental challenge and I need a regular routine. On Friday it’s something of a milestone; it’ll be my 4000th session. I started in March 2009 so have averaged 250 per year for 16 years! Never too late, never too old to start; you thinking of joining Celina and me, Sami?”

“Er! Got to go, Richard. Good to see you and we’ll get together in The Hope Café shortly.”

And off he went, down the stairs, muttering to himself …. ‘If he thinks I’m going to ……’ then he was out of earshot!

Richard 17th October 2025

Hove

http://www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

PS I have an Excel spreadsheet that tracks my sessions …..

20096520163162023174
201022220171802024144
201133920183132025124
20123432019287
20132492020288
20142702021218
20152792022189

PC 460 Perth and The Margaret River WA

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I sent this WhatsApp to Mo, who’d asked why we were going to WA.

“Many years ago, someone recommended ‘Cloudstreet’ by Western Australian author Tim Winton. I read it and loved it enormously.

In summary: ‘The novel opens in 1943. Two poor families, the Lambs and the Pickles, flee their rural homes to share a large house called Cloudstreet in Perth, Western Australia. The two families contrast each other; the devoutly religious Lambs find meaning in hard work and God’s grace, while the Pickles hope for good luck and do not share the Lambs’ appetite for hard work.’

Since then I have read most of his subsequent books, like Dirt Music and Breathe and had Western Australia on my bucket list for years. And it’s true, it’s roughly the same distance from Singapore to Perth and from Perth to Sydney; Perth is also in the same Time Zone as Singapore.”

“Now I understand. So, what have you been up to?”

“Perth in September is between seasons and we caught a rather cool wind, especially compared with Singapore! So, we didn’t take the 30-minute train ride to visit Fremantle on the coast, nor the ferry to Rottnest Island to sit on the beach or look for the Quokka marsupial, but we did walk up to Kings Park and admire its views across the city.

In the park I took a few photos of a kookaburra up in a tree, but for some strange reason they failed to materialise. Doesn’t happen very often and when it does it’s infuriating. Fortunately, we found another one in Cape Lodge’s grounds that was equally photogenic. To round off the outside activities we walked Elizabeth Quay …… which was basically closed!”

“OK! Richard. I’ll catch you when you’re back. Safe travels and enjoy WA.”

 Later we went to Perth’s Art Gallery of Western Australia and I was very taken by Mrs Bundamurra’s painting ‘Kira Kiro spirits’. The card said:

“She often painted the Kira Kiro spirits that reside in and around the town of Kalumburu where she lived. There are good spirits and traditional dancers who sing about the yam and fruits that can be gathered when the wet season begins. Mrs Bundamurra had a strong connection to them which is how she was able to illustrate their animated, quirky nature.”

We all dream and sometimes our dreams are very vivid, sometimes they evaporate as soon as we wake, at other times their weirdness or strangeness lingers in our conscious. I wonder how I would paint these colourful thoughts, even the odd ethereal spirit, if indeed I could. Could you? I look at Mrs Bundamurra’s painting and marvel big time.

Normally I get very bored very quickly with museums, maybe 90 minutes max, but we spent about three hours in the WA Museum Boola Bardip, a fascinating collection of local culture and history. And somewhere in one of the galleries, one detailing skeletons of prehistoric animals found in this part of Australia ……

……. we found this little chap, the only living non-human on three floors of the museum. Felt he, or she (?), must have been lonely.

We checked out of our hotel, picked up a hire car, and headed south towards the Margaret River area which lies between Cape Naturaliste in the north and Cape Leeuwin in the south. The latter is the place where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean – the Indian Ocean current going north and the Southern Ocean current south.

Indulging ourselves, we’d booked three nights in Cape Lodge – “offering intimate accommodation and an award-winning restaurant, Cape Lodge is a hidden gem situated in a private paradise within Yallingup and the renowned Margaret River wine region. Its restaurant was recognised in Australia’s top 1% at the 2025 Good Food Guide Chef Hat Awards.”

Driving around this region, everywhere one looked were vineyards, some smaller than others; Cape Lodge has its own – ‘Sous Ciel’.

The stand-out memories of our stay are: The lovely staff, especially Josefinna, from Argentina, in reception and Lèa, from Normandy in France, who, at just 28, ran the restaurant; the restaurant’s food was beautiful, in a minimalistic way; ‘Vegetarian’ and ‘Australian’ don’t occupy the same page and one meal left Celina quite hungry; no matter how you treat a carrot, boil it, peel it, grill it, roast it, grate it, it’s still a carrot – and one needs more than one; the local kookaburra obliged with his best side…..

…… and the stars over the vineyard were exceptional (you have to look hard at this; the iPhone camera is excellent but this is stretching its abilities!

Geologically the area is mainly limestone on a lower stratum of granite. There are numerous caves; we drove south to the Mammoth Caves …..

….. and ooo’d and ah’d at the magnificent stalactites and stalagmites.

Lunch down on Prevelly Beach gave me the opportunity to paddle in the Indian Ocean for the first time in my life.

We drove up to the lighthouse on Cape Naturaliste, the cape named after the second ship in Frenchman Baudin’s mapping expedition of the coast.

The recognition of the ancient Aboriginal people and their influence is very poignant here in Western Australia. The Magaret River area is the home of the Wadandi people. By the lighthouse is this welcome: “The traditional name for this location is Kwirreejeenungup, the place with the beautiful view. Look out to the horizon, where the sun sets. That’s where the spirits of our ancestors travel to rest, until the spirit totem return back to the boodja (country). We have a close connection to the ocean, land, plants and animals and will continue to care for this land and its waters. Our six-season calendar guides us as we live in harmony with boodja. We are encouraged by nature’s changes such as the flowering of different plants and animal behavioural cycles. If you look after the boodja, the boodja will look after you.”

To be continued ……….

Richard 10th October 2025

Hove

www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

PC 459 Singapore ….. then Perth

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In Singapore we went to the Asian Civilisation Museum in Empress Place which had opened in 1997; it was within walking distance and there’s a fascinating collection of bits and bobs. The ‘bits and bobs’ are explained on the website thus:

“The Chinese collection is represented by fine Dehua porcelain figures, Taoist and Buddhistic statuary, export porcelain, calligraphy and other examples of decorative art. The South Asian Galleries feature statuary from a range of periods, early Buddhist art of India and South Indian woodwork, Nepali Tibetan bronzes, textiles, late medieval miniatures and colonial prints. The Southeast Asian collections are broad in scope and are rich in ethnological material. The Khoo Teck Puat Gallery is the permanent home for the cargo recovered from the Tang Shipwreck, a sunken 9th century trading ship bound for Iran and Iraq, discovered in 1998 off Belitung Island in the Java Sea. The recovered cargo comprises more than 60,000 well-preserved ceramics produced in China during the Tang dynasty (618–907), as well as objects of gold and silver. 

I particularly liked the three earthenware chaps rescued from an important tomb; the label said from between 206BC – 9AD in the Western Han dynasty. Wow!

The description said the bandy-legged chap would have sat on a wooden horse – but over 2000 years that had turned to dust.

Then there was an ancient bowl for your tropical fish collection. It was about a meter in diameter and painted with scenes from its construction.

A metal cast of one of Buddha’s feet was fascinating; the whole sole was covered in little metal pictures.

When we entered the museum we offered Singapore dollars in exchange for our entry tickets, only to be told it was a cashless museum. OK! So out with the debit card; no problem. Just around the corner in the first exhibition hall was a plastic box asking for small change ie cash for charity!

Now this is interesting, isn’t it? We don’t mind dropping some lose change into a container asking for a donation to a charity, but would you baulk if the same charity asked you to donate using your debit card? Nothing is ‘spare’ in your bank account, so how much would you give? Then you’d think you were being mean ……. but a handful of lose change? You probably wouldn’t count it!

Social media has meant it’s easy to stay in touch with or at least keep tabs on what our friends and family are up to. Celina, like most people, has a number of cousins; one, Ana Clara Sampaio nicknamed Caia, I met in Rio de Janeiro in September 2016 in a café on Copacabana’s Forte, with Celina and their cousin Bel:

At the time she had just started cabin crew training with United Airlines and today has clocked up nine years with their long-haul flights, working out of Chicago. Three days before we flew to Singapore, Celina found out that Caia was having a Singaporean holiday, at exactly the time we were there. We met for a very serendipitous drink at the roof top bar of The Fullerton Bay Hotel then supper.  

I was curious what had prompted Caia to work as cabin crew and compared her with our chum in Hove, Benedicte Deutsch, who decided to become a paramedic in mid-life. Apparently, her grandfather, Paulo de Oliveira Sampaio, was CEO of Panair do Brazil, the largest Brazilian Commercial aviation company 1929 – 1965. During the military dictatorship the company was forced out of operation, routes and assets seized by the government. The Supreme Court later ruled its bankruptcy a fraud and the company the victim of political persecution. His passion for aviation obviously rubbed off on her whenever they met.

It’s probably a good thing we left when we did, as Singapore is hosting the Formula 1 Street Racing Marina Bay circuit and Grand Prix – 26th September until 5th October.

Gradually the streets around the Fullerton Hotel were being constricted, fenced, barriered. Will be very noisy!

Ghosted by an ex-colleague whom we saw on our last visit; over six years ago, so what happened? Are they still around? Tried mobile, text, Facebook and LinkedIn before we left home. Nada! Zilch! They lived in Singapore and worked across the causeway in Malaysia. Time to move on? But what happened to them …….?

We boarded our late afternoon flight to Perth. As we entered our cabin there was a chap already on board who was completely pissed, remonstrating with a member of the cabin crew as to why he should be allowed to fly. “I vvv paid tttousands of dollars. Mush get back to MY wifey in Perf. Shhhhheees not well. Ivve don nothfin rong … not shhhor why u hve a prblem … I’ll jush sit here.” How he was allowed to emplane in the first place is a question I am sure the cabin crew were asking! Eventually Airport Security police arrived and he was taken off. The atmosphere palpably relaxed.

My iPhone pinged; my friend Mo from the Hope Café texting on WhatsApp.

“Hi! Richard. Just thought I could catch up; think you’re in Western Australia. Remind me why you wanted to go to Perth? How’s your trip so far? How’s Francisquinha?”

I replied: “Actually we’ve just arrived in a cool and cloudy Perth, so I’ll text you back when we’ve unpacked. Francisquinha? Rather fed up, if I’m honest. Both Singapore and Australia’s border checks have gone electronic – quick scan, a thumb print for me and we’re through. I asked officials in both countries what about a passport stamp for my stuffed rabbit. They laughed. (Francisquinha didn’t!) No one could find any form of stamp, let alone an ink pad – she was just sort of waved through, despite her complaining!”

Richard 3rd October 2025 (NZ Time)

Christchurch, New Zealand

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