 |
| Queuing in my Thai elephant pants |
We had an evening flight from Bangkok so we made the most of
a noon check-out before going for coffee and wasting a few hours in air
conditioned shopping malls with our remaining Thai baht.
Getting a taxi to Suvarnabhumi airport to the East of
Bangkok we thought we were in plenty of time for an international flight. In fact we were, it was just that by the time
check-in opened two and a half hours before our 7pm flight the queue went for
miles and we were near the back (right).
We queued for over an hour to get checked-in. We got through security fast enough but we
hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast and it was now about 6pm. We rushed a dirty burger for dinner which I
regretted straight away as it gave me heartburn for the flight.
The timing must have been very tight for many on the flight
and we were never going to take off on time.
We set off about half an hour late in the end.
The first leg of the flight to Guangzhou in
China was only just over two hours.
They
did manage to cram in a full drinks and dinner service within that time….
Just!
And then we were in China:
 |
| China from the air |
 |
| The on the ground in China photo.... |
We agreed that we should have
considered an elongated stop-over here so that we could have experienced some
of China.
You can’t really claim to have
‘been there’ by spending just over an hour transiting through the international
airport, can you?!
The next flight took off at 0030 hours Chinese time for the
ten-and-a-half-hour flight on to Auckland.
We’d hoped that this timing would be perfect to get some rest on the
flight, but sadly that wasn’t to be. The
flight was full and had no extra leg room available, so we were cramped in. As
soon as I started to feel comfortable and sleepy we hit turbulence. It was incessant. I can’t remember being on a flight that had
such regular and violent turbulence. It
was annoying. I did manage to watch
three films though, so I made the most of the time.
Due to the time difference, it was 4pm in Auckland when we
landed. We’d filled out our landing
cards and I whizzed through the electronic passport control with no problems,
but Simon accidentally told the machine that he had a 12-month conviction for
something, so had to be verified by a human immigration officer instead! He got his landing card stamped with his
Visitor Visa authorised.
Onwards to
collect our baggage and to the biosecurity check. Here, we were instructed to go and have items
of our luggage checked. They wanted to inspect
our walking shoes that we hadn’t used again since we were last in NZ! Then they X-rayed ALL of our bags again! They are very cautious here about what and who they let onto their Islands and you can’t argue with the reasoning behind that.
 |
| A gloomy welcome back to Auckland |
 | | | | | | | |
| Travelling light? All our belongings on the one trolley |
We’d done it!
We were
back in NZ!!
This might actually happen now!
We had a long wait for the courtesy bus to our hire car company, Omega,
so it was nearly 630pm by the time we were mobile in our funky Toyota Vitz.
 |
| Our temporary wheels |
It
was a 50-minute drive to our new digs in Pukekohe East.
I think my first question should be ‘how do you say Pukekohe
properly?!’
We rolled up about 730pm to
meet one of the owners, Steve, who lives in the main house on site with his
wife Trish and their two daughters.
After a
brief tour of their holiday cottage we were given the keys and told to make ourselves at
home.
We forewarned them that we would
not be doing much tomorrow after the sleep deprivation on our journey. Time to get some sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment