UK to New Zealand

Scottie’s story

Bye-bye car, hello aeroplane … for the next 30+ hours – erk. My Kindle was loaded and there were lots of in-flight films to watch, but, as I wasn’t too well, I watched one film and then slept through most of the journey from London to Singapore where we managed to grab a quick shower to freshen up before it was time to get back on the plane for the next part – Singapore to Sydney. Can’t tell you much about that as I slept through the whole flight.

Sydney airport was mobbed so we were glad to be able to sit in a lounge for a while, before the final part of the journey from Sydney to Wellington. On arrival it was a quick taxi ride to our hotel then a wee bit later we went out for a walk and a bite to eat so Rob could get his first steak of the holiday … it won’t be his last, that’s for sure. Then it was back to the hotel where we were both asleep shortly after 6pm and slept the whole night through.

Due to the changing time zones we could have celebrated Hogmanay & New Year many times but we  planned to wait until we finally landed in Wellington to have a cheeky wee glass to toast in 2026 and the start of Rob’s bucket list holiday of a lifetime. This hasn’t happened yet as I cannot face wine, bubbly or food. Not the best start to the holiday.

Overall, the journey was long and tedious, but I cannot complain at all about the flights and service – everything went like clockwork, it would just have been nicer if we could have had Scottie beam us up to Wellington, Star Trek style.

Rob’s reflections

There and back again… part one.

Christopher Nolan’s version of The Odyssey comes out this year. It will have to be pretty epic to match our journey out to New Zealand – it felt like a year had gone by before we touched down in the Land of the Long White Cloud. We are fortunate to have Lorna’s brother Gordon looking after our cat back home – feeding him, sorting his medicine, and providing a warm padded sofa for whenever he feels the need for a lap to sit on. Safe in that knowledge, we set out from deepest darkest Northumberland (OK, Lesbury near Alnmouth… but it was a bit cloudy) for Newcastle Airport. We arrived in plenty of time, and handed in our luggage which was checked through all the way to Wellington. Unlike that of one of our fellow travellers – more on that later. We sat ourselves down in the British Airways Lounge and enjoyed some nibbles: I went through not one, but two bowls of vegetable soup and associated bread rolls, having missed out on lunch. BA1333 took us on phase one of the journey, arriving in plenty of time at London Heathrow. A bit of research showed that at least the last three of flight BA15 to Sydney had gone from Terminal 5 Gates B or C, so we took my favourite walk in that airport, the underground walkway from A Gates, and stopped over at BA’s Galleries Lounge at the B Gates. The peace and tranquillity on level -4 is well worth the extra ten minute walk – all very Zen. But I am needlessly foreshadowing part of our activities in Wellington Botanical Garden – so back to the plot. We had several hours to kill, followed by the inevitable announcement that we would need to go _back_ to A Gates (at least it was via that same serotonin inducing subterranean route) to catch the next flight. And almost inevitably that was from Gate 10, with a bonus bus ride to a remote stand, which added a few more miles and some extra steps.

We left Good Old Blighty over 8 hours after leaving our doorstep, and got down to the serious business of some sleep. This was a 13 hour flight, so plenty of time to fill in. I enjoyed a glass of bubbly, an express meal (just starter & dessert, don’t wake me until breakfast) then started catching up on Series 2 of “SAS Rogue Heroes”. I declared after episode 4, and noticed very little other than the inside of my eyelids until the next meal arrived. Shortly thereafter we arrived at Changi Airport Singapore for a turnaround. We were politely shuffled off the aeroplane for a couple of hours, at which point we made use of some very useful advice from Flyertalk Forums by wandering off to the Qantas Lounge and getting a shower. Refreshed and renewed, and in cleaner clothing, we returned to the gate for our flight, ready for stage 3. There we encountered a lass from Newcastle who was taking the same route as us to Wellington. If her luggage were doing the same all would have been well, but it appeared that it was only going as far as Sydney, and would need to be picked up – which would be a bit of a challenge with customs and immigration rather than just following the yellow brick road for International Transit Passengers. An inadvertent error during check-in – no-one is perfect – thank goodness our luggage was (spoiler alert) going to be fine.

Back on exactly the same plane, in exactly the same seats, but with fresh cabin crew and pilots, and a few different passengers, we set off in the general direction of 2026. Just 8 hours this time. I had another glass of bubbly, plus most of Lorna’s, and determinedly set about watching the rest of the SAS Rogue Heroes series, which was entertaining; followed by watching the recent Fantastic Four film, which was merely something to do while eating. After that, some further sleep was in order. At some point there was an arbitrary announcement of Happy New Year from the cockpit, based on no particular geography, but rather on what the time was at our destination. I think he just wanted to get it out of the way early on. Breakfast number two came along, but things were beginning to blur together. At Sydney I vaguely remember getting off the plane, following the Transit Passenger path carefully so as not to get vomited out into Australia proper, and making our way to the American Express Lounge for another wait. No shower this time, just some coffee. Eventually our flight was ready to board, and we made our way to the gate – encountering the lady from Newcastle, who was not entirely sure if her luggage would follow her or not – but apparently people had taken details and descriptions and were on the case. Case – see what I did there? Oh, never mind… Flight 4 of 4 was going to be a bit under 3 hours. I vaguely remember watching some episodes of “Peacemaker”, and not being able to eat the meal provided. Lorna got set into a series of Tony and Ziva, which would have been more satisfying if they hadn’t ended on a cliff-hanger to be resolved in an episode not available on that flight. Finally, at long last, we landed at Wellington airport. A bit of passport scanning, picking up of luggage – where we parted from our fellow Newcastle passenger without finding how that episode ended either – and on to the Biosecurity counter. There was a brief chat with a friendly inspector, who expressed sympathy for our journey having started two days ago, and away we went. Some of you may have had a moment in your past when a member of His Majesty’s Constabulary has ‘had a word’, but lets you off with a waggy finger warning – and you know you have passed the Attitude Test. When you get into New Zealand and get given a friendly green laminated piece of paper to take to the next queue, this is the phytosanitary equivalent. This is the bit of card that says “We believe that, on the balance of probabilities, you are not trying to smuggle in a wolverine, honey badger or velociraptor about your person”. And the queue you have been sent to moves freely and without hinderance, unlike all the others, which appeared to involve varying levels of questions and inspections.

At this point we were beyond tired, and the taxi ride to the Novotel Hotel in town was not taken in. But we had arrived!