Last Monday was packing day. It was a matter of collecting up all our 'stuff' and squeezing it into our suitcases. Fortunately we hadn't spent money on purchases or souvenirs so it wasn't too difficult a task. The most important thing is to make sure nothing is left behind. I also scrubbed the soles of our shoes with an old toothbrush as we had been on a farm and we know NZ border control would need to check them. It is aeasier to do it yourselves than waste time later having them do it.
Stephen also had one last minute job to help with - the painting of the living room door. He had already spent some time on it, stripping paint from it and cutting it to the correct frame space. As it is an older house none of the walls are straight or square.
Our flight was at 1:35pm from Heathrow airport and Jessica had said she was happy to drive us. The trip takes you down the M1 and the M25 and on a good run can take as little as an hour twenty or a good two hours with heavy traffic. So we left just after 9am to give ourselves plenty of time. We were very lucky and made it just over an the hour, as Jessica told us the next day there was an accident on the M1 and there were long delays. We checked in, had a coffee and said our farewells to Jess. A sad time but we had had a lovely holiday and time with her and Andrew and knowing that we can communicatethrough Skype and emails mdoes make it easier.
The flight was on time and we were spent 12 hours+ flying to Singapore. We arrive after 9am and our stopover was 11hours. We had considered doing one of the two hour tours that are offered to transit passengers but we were feeling quite jaded having not slept so we found a sleep zone with full recliner chairs and rested and slept till mid afternoon. By that stage we flagged the tour, collected our Changi free vouchers for transit passengers ($40 each) and set about spending them. By the time we had something to eat, chose some duty free gin and spent the remaining money on some chocolate we had very little time left before it was time to board our next flight. This flight is under 10 hours and this makes such a difference. We were very pleased though to land in Christchurch as once again we hadn't been able to sleep. Passport control is very easy these days, with it all being done electronically. The slowest part is waiting for your luggage. The border security were very happy with our shoes so we were quickly through that check and out to the arrival hall where Keith, my brother in law, was waiting for us.
We spent the day out at Lincoln, keeping ourselves awake, which included a walk around some of the new subdivisions, and an enjoyable meal that Doug joined us for. After showing Barbara and Keith some of our photos we headed off to bed about 9pm and managed to sleep until 7am. We headed to Geraldine to see my Mum and Dad and stayed two more nights before heading down here to Clyde yesterday(Sunday). What a beautiful day for a drive. The skies were clear giving us good views of the mountains and making the lakes a brilliant blue and the roads were quiet. We really do live in a great country.
It is 11 weeks since we left Clyde to start this journey and it is good to be home. Spring is definitely here (though frosts are still occurring) with lots of blossom and spring flowers about. A far cry from the miserable winter conditons we left at the end of June. It is time to settle now for a while. We have a trip or two to Invercargill and the cleaning job in the camping ground in Clyde again over the Christmas/summer holidays but otherwise we have a 'blank canvas' at this stage. The blog therefore is now going to take a break until a new project or trip is happening.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment