14th April 2009

I have arrived safely in Waikanae, just north of Wellington New Zealand, and am at Terry's house. The long journey passed really well and I do not at feel as though I have been travelling for something like 28 hours. Fortunately both long flights (London-Hong Kong and Hong Kong-Auckland) were night flights so after take-off and dinner the lights were dimmed and everyone went to sleep or settled down to watch a film of their choice (I think there were 80 films to choose from!) I changed my watch frequently so as to quickly get into the different time zones and I think that helped. We had just a short hour or so stopover in Hong Kong for refuelling and that was a welcome break.
The upgrade to Air New Zealand 'premium economy' was worth every penny of the extra cost. Lots of leg room and space and the food and service were very good. I was served dinner and breakfast on both flights, both meals consisting of several courses, and wine (as many refills as I wanted) came free! So that, together with a sleeping pill, helped me get some sleep and thus pass the time. I don't think I ever had a 'long' sleep, but just sort of 'cat-napped'. I watched 2 films - Frost/Nixon (or is it Nixon/Frost) - that was good. I also watched 'Doubt' with Meryl Streep and found it very boring and fell asleep so have no idea how it ended!
I had a 2-hour wait for a connecting flight from Auckland to Wellington but that time soon passed. It was about a 12-15 minute walk from the international to the domestic terminal and I really enjoyed that - having the chance to walk in the fresh air and move around a bit.
All flights were pretty much on time, and all in all the whole long journey went incredibly well.
The weather here today is beautiful, end to end blue sky and sunshine. The scenery during short flight over NZ from Auckland down to Wellington was lovely. NZ is such a beautiful country.
A few days R & R here now. I expect I will feel the time differences tomorrow - I am still on a 'high' and reality hasn't kicked in yet.