Hall Monitor

 That’s what Michael affectionately (yeah, sure, ok, let’s go with “affectionately”) calls me and my tendency to follow the rules and to occasionally point out to him (not the “offenders”) when other folks do not follow the rules. 

Since yesterday was another travel day : up at 3:30a, shuttle at 5a, flight at 7:30a, hospitality room until boarding, sorry embarking the ship, line to sign this, line to swipe that, then orientation and safety drills then orientation for expeditions/excursion process….. anyway, just not a lot to gush about.

So here are a few examples of my adorable eccentricity.

Baggage allowances. This trip involves eight different airlines. So different baggage allowances apply. Dimensions. Weights etc. and the charter flights in PNG specified only soft-sided, lockable bags. I happened to have an old duffel bag and Amazon provided some cable locks.  So in Port Moresby we selected only the items we would need for the inland tour and left the hard roll aboards at the hotel in Port Moresby. Of course at that point we didn’t realize we were effectively on a private tour. In a nine seat charter plane. Just the two of us.  We could have taken a couple of cassowaries with us! Everyone remarked. This is all you have? Really? Nobody follows this rule. Well done, me!

Declarations upon arrival. There is also the attention to what you can bring in to each country. Sure, prescription drugs have to be in their original labeled vials. And your arrival declaration form for Australia requires that you declare them in case you have anything Australia considers illegal. So I checked yes to that box. Doesn’t everyone? Had the bags checked. Passed through with thanks for declaring. Well done, me!

Wood. The USA isn’t keen on wood products coming into the country, we know that even from shipping our stuff back from the Caribbean. But Australia is really against it which was an important consideration since wood carvings were on the shopping list for PNG. We asked from the beginning about shipping our purchase back to the States directly from PNG which we did from Mt Hagen. Of course, contrary to my best hall monitor intentions, on our last night in PNG Michael went off to change back the bit of local currency we had. He returned saying he was forced to spend the money in the adjacent mall! Some wet wipes. Appreciated. A ball cap. Gotcha. And a little carved wood. Cool….. wait! What? I was beside myself. After all that planning, we had to check the “declaring wood” box entering Australia again and for a $3 piece of crap balsa wood. Why? Why? Why?

You might think I was being unnecessarily concerned but in my defense not uncharacteristically respectful of the rules. As an illustration of that, I had read somewhere that all shoes and hiking poles etc should be fastidiously cleaned of all soil, seeds, plant materials etc. so our last night in PNG I used my airplane-provided toothbrush and soap and water and carefully cleaned out all of the treads and nooks and crannies of all of those items. Well done, me??? 

First excursion at Talbot Bay later. Passed through the narrows on our way.