The rainbow never sets

did not like hats, she had a contraption of feathers on her head instead. The good-byes were not difficult, as I was very keen to get away and on our way. By then it was already about 5.30 pm and it was getting dark.

Our VW beetle gave a final honk, and we were off. But we didn't get very far. There were some empty tins on a string trailing behind us which made a hell of a racket. Going around the corner I removed them and we thought that would be it. But then there was another clanking noise, which I didn't quite know where it came from. Eventually we decided it must have come from the left hub-cap. In my best suit I had to get out again and remove the cap. A few pennies dropped to the ground.

"Now we shall be ready to go at long last," I said to Alison, and we drove off confidently. At the next intersection I had to stop again, and there was that by now familiar clank again, this time from the right front wheel.

"Oh no, another one!" exclaimed Alison. By now I was in a slight rage. I had enough of this. "It must have been George and Horst," I said, "wait till we come back. I'll give them a piece of my mind!"

But there was no point swearing and carrying on. I had to remove the hub-cap again and shook out the pennies. By now it was quite dark.

After travelling for about twenty minutes, we heard another clank from the wheels.

"One must have got stuck and come loose again. I've had it. I'm not going to undo the hub-cap again. Let it get stuck again and tomorrow in daylight we will be able to remove it."

I needn't have worried. The one penny that was left got well and truly stuck again and didn't bother us any more.

Our destination was THE GREAT NORTHERN Hotel in Newcastle. I had booked the bridal suite. We wanted to have some dinner, but we were too late. They made us some sandwiches which were brought to our room.

Alison heard during the night a lot of trains shunting and whistling, but I was dead to all the noise. Breakfast was in good old Aussie style, a selection of juices, serials, eggs and bacon on toast with a decent steak. Alison was surprised at my appetite.

"I hope you don't expect a breakfast like that every day." "Of course not. I was just starving having missed out on dinner last night."

With this good breakfast, our honeymoon trip continued. We were heading for Port Macquarie, where I had booked a flat for ten days. It was right opposite Flynn's Beach and we both loved it. Port Macquarie in those days was a sleepy little mid-north coast town. It had two or three typical Aussie cafes, which were closed on the day we wanted to eat out.

There was also plenty of rain, but it didn't prevent us from doing sight seeing around Port Macquarie and going further up north. The first ferry on the Pacific highway was across the Macleay river, and up to Brisbane

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