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After this prelude , the main event , the Digital Libraries conference , was a rousing success , although something of an anticlimax because all the work takes place beforehand . They know their stock by heart - - no catalogs or computers - - and we chatted for an hour . Not having children we could go that much farther in each day hike , and despite our familiarity with the region we found a whole new world of places we had never before visited . The airline agent changed her Los Angeles ticket , and assured us that , though the flight to Auckland was fully booked , we should have no difficulty in changing the next leg once we got there . She got another job in a health club near where we used to live , but public transport from her apartment was difficult . - - one glass with a drop of warm gin , another with vermouth , no ice , no shaker , no olive , mix it yourself ) . A mile-long dredged channel gives access to the marina at any state of the tide . Far from simply maintaining the status quo as Pam had anticipated , there was real decision-making to be done , and the Government did n't make things any easier by rescaling the aides ' grading and salaries and also restructuring the children 's financial support , all of which meant long and difficult consultations and discussion , and huge amounts of extra paperwork . He lives independently , in a house with a slightly older boy ; their social worker Melanie lives downstairs and keeps a pretty tight eye on them and another pair of boys next door . We're raiding the family photograph album to get a colour picture for each page . By the time the road was reopened a couple of hours later , Ian and Pam had each missed their evening rehearsals , with the most original of excuses - - " Sorry I could n't make it last night , I was confined at home by the armed offender 's squad . Feeling a very long way indeed from any humanity - - there were no other boats out there at all - - we steered nervously through a narrow , rock-bordered channel between islets , the heavy ocean swell crashing to left and right , to take a peek at an incredible anchorage , almost unseen from the outside world except through a large hole in the huge rock that protects it from the elements . Afterwards another friend drove us both to his homestead at Akaroa , an hour or so distant , where we arrived in the wee small hours and spent the next day . Another delightful present had arrived out of the blue when they boarded the train the previous night . Pam has been learning the marimba at weekends : a large xylophone on legs and wheels that spans over three octaves , attacked by up to three players with two beaters each . One liked to sit and eat grass , the other to chase squirrels ; so with a leash in each hand Pam found herself stretched to the limit in order to satisfy each cat 's requirements simultaneously . The show was an unqualified success and Pam was delighted with the way the children rose to the occasion . It 's like a washing machine out there , steep 6-foot chop generated by wash , coming from any direction . No smoking . Then from Belfast to Glasgow for a weekend playing jazz with Gary , an ex-member of the Ian Witten trio who deserted New Zealand a year ago for the grey skies of Scotland . This did n't really surprise us as she 's always had an innate sense of justice and been quick to leap to the defence of anyone who she 's felt has been hard done by - - an admirable trait . She told us of how shivers would sometimes go down her spine in lectures - - little frissons of intellectual excitement - - and now whenever Ian lectures he surveys the bored and listless faces of his students and wonders , doubtfully , whether any shivering is going on out there . Setting off along the sand to the south , we were astonished to catch a glimpse what could only be an enormous factory or power station shimmering in the distance through the heat haze .