‘We spent our honeymoon isolated from the rest of the world’

After spending a night in a London hotel and an early breakfast, we caught a train to Royal Albert Dock, where our ship, the Rangitoto was waiting, ready to sail. By now we could barely talk to each other for excitement, as we passed through customs and went aboard and were told our cabin number. We weren’t interested in the cabins at this stage; there was much too much going on, both on board and at the dockside below, for us to start unpacking or anything like that. We managed to find our way up to the main deck, from where we could look down, (a surprisingly long distance), on a gathered throng, all relatives or friends of people leaving for New Zealand, and all trying to look cheerful as they gazed up, at the passengers gazing down!