Featherston
4/9/1916
Dear Folk.
Having arrived all safe & sound I suppose it is up to me to write a few lines & state as near as possible the doings of the next four days & perhaps those just gone by. You will be aware ere this reaches you that Lottie is in Wellington I was not at all surprised that she was coming on especially when she was finished there anyway. What a good chance it is for her getting the position in Dunedin. I was speaking to them in Wellington over the telephone a few minutes after five today Lottie & the Miss Gibbon I was telling you about are coming out to see the camp tomorrow. Lottie is also trying to stay a few days if I or she can find any accommodation for her. I rung up the Empire Hotel this a.m. but they have no room for over a week. The other place is not a desirable place in any shape or form if only for a few days. I have been told of a private place but have yet to find out if they can have a lodger for any length of time. It is now mail time & I am expecting some from Auckland so will have to run shortly and see what is trumps. Jess was saying on Sunday that she wrote to the girls up there saying she expected them down before I
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left. Fancy arriving in Wellington without having been sick but really it was a glorious trip had I not been as tired and been able to stay on deck a little longer it would have been grand. Although mind you I would not have said when I went to bed that I was not going to be sick in fact it would have taken very little to have me thrown overboard. On arrival here I find that no one knows anything about our sailing anyway I will be very much surprised if we go this week the syllabus of work for the week say we are to be issued with our new clothing on Friday so if you put two & four together you cannot make it five. I suppose Lottie would say in her letter what they heard in Wellington today about us sailing from Auckland. I think it would be fine if we did fancy getting a trip up there after all, to good to come off “Eh!” After all I got away without my razor strap the only thing that I can think of that I forgot. Everything is going on the same as usual there has been some fine weather here lately and things are fine & dry so much so that today being horribly wind everything is just thick with dust it makes us say what must it be like in Egypt. All day we have done very
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little in fact it amounted to nothing this morning but this afternoon we we on work that we were doing after our first fortnight here. This is what will go on if we stay any length of time now so you can well imagine our anxiety to be away. I can find nothing more to write about just now so will close. I got the oversea budget alright also a letter from you Annie written before I left on leave so that is not bad for a start is it. Hoping all are in the best of form as I am you may be sure.
Your Brother Charlie.
