We arrived at London Heathrow 3.5 hours before the flight was due to take off, and boarded the plane just as the gates were closing. "How?" might you ask? Well...
We arrived at London Heathrow 3.5 hours before the flight was due to take off. Caroline's bag was of a strange shape, due to the attachment of three bears (Fred, Ginger, and Jeremy) on the front, so the bag was taken to the "Handle with Bear" section. Post check-in, we met Gwenlli's sister Rhianwen for a last supper. There, we played the piano and had some tea and scones.
Shortly before boarding, we said bye to R, and headed through security. C beeped the alarm, and so was given a rather fresh body check. By the time we were through, the display indicated that the gate was currently closing. Of course, the gate the flight was taking off from was the furthest away in all of the airport. Due to (unchecked) hand baggage weight constraints, we had a rather awkward selection of coats, bags, and electrical items. However, sprint we must, so sprint we did, and made it to the gate gasping and wheezing, and coughing. Thus made the first resolution: GET FIT AGAIN.
The flight was mostly uneventful, apart from C spilling the lady next to her's coca-cola all over her blanket. After profusely apologising and requesting a refill from the cabin crew, the lady was subdued. Thus G and C settled down to watch "Some Like it Hot", with some veggie Indian food for G, and some vegan food for C. The experience was a first - synchronising an in-flight film is not the easiest of tasks. Halfway through, we fell asleep, and woke up with a breakfast, meaning we were one hour from Hong Kong (the flight arrived half an hour early).
Hong Kong airport was fairly easily navigated - although the lack of trolleys made for some interesting manoeuvres. En route to the trolleys on the other side of security, our paths were blocked by loud people chattering away... The Israelis are everywhere!
The airport was a mall with an airport attached. The views were quite pretty, but very smoggy, and the air felt sort of thick. At one point, the loudspeaker warned us about avian flu, and how we should report feeling weak or feverish to a member of the health team (who were hard to miss - they were bedecked in surgical masks and looked very serious).
We found a quiet spot at the far end of the terminal building - originally it had been to watch sunset, but it took over ten minutes to traverse the full length of the hangar. There we stretched, dozed, and then headed to the gate.
The flight to Auckland was quite easy - we watched the end of "Some Like it Hot", slept a lot, and ate yet more food. C had some very disgusting tofu pudding, whereas G had delicious idly and medhu vadai... No rest for the wicked.
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