The Voyage
For the six-week journey we had a six-berth cabin with a porthole. This we shared with 5 other ladies and another toddler. Six ladies and two toddlers in one cabin was quite a crush and travelling through the tropics was extremely hot.
To alleviate the oppressive heat, the stewards would erect a metal chute at the porthole to funnel air into the cabin. The toddlers had to share the berth with their mothers. My mother was ill for the entire trip so the other folk in the cabin took turns to look after me.
Arrival in New Zealand
Dad met us in Wellington from where we journeyed to Timaru; first on the ferry to Lyttleton and then by train.
From there we travelled by car to Simon's Pass, a large sheep station that was then owned by the Mathieson family. It was three months before my mother's heavy luggage arrived from the boat.