What a journey!

1. Car trip to local train station (thank you Annette)
2. Train to Charing Cross – 1 hour
3. Tube to Heathrow – 1 hour
4. Check in and wait at Heathrow – 3 hours
5. Fly London to Kuala Lumpur – 12 hours
6. Wait at KL – 4.5 hours
7. Fly to Auckland – 9 hours
8. Drive to Kath’s – 1 hour

So with a 12 hour time difference, and all that travel, we left home at 5pm Friday and arrived Sunday lunch time.  It was so good to get here 🙂

I think the worst part of the journey was the hour on the Tube because it was so hot and so humid and so crowded!

Malaysian Airlines did a good job of taking us to the to the other side of the world, especially the London to Malaysia leg of the trip which was on an Airbus 380.  Such a huge plane and so modern and comfortable, it didn’t really seem like a plane.  The entertainment package was so good it was hard to decide what to watch!

The food was very passable too.  Supper was a salad of I am not sure what, beef Rendang and rice, a strawbwerry mousse cake and cheese and biscuits.  Accompanied by white wine.  They also handed out a really good snack box with biscuits and nuts in it. Breakfast was a carrot salad, chicken with noodles and vegetables, yogurt and cheese with a roll. We finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur’s very modern airport. We had a 4.5 hour wait which we spent shopping, reading and drinking.  And eating Toblerone – oops! I enjoyed a latte in Dome and we played cards to pass the time.The second plane trip was on a much older plane and unfortunately the entertainment system did not work.  We did catch up on some sleep.
Plenty of food to eat.  Supper was a smoked ham salad, fish with pasta and vegetables, creme caramel, cheese and a roll, chocolates and a glass of wine.
Breakfast this morning was amazing.  Coconut rice with boiled egg and a spicy prawn and dried shrimp curry with peanuts.  I also had a fruit salad, strawberry yogurt, a croissant with jam and a muesli bar. This prawn and shrimp curry with peanuts was excellent.  I would have happily paid good money for this dish in a restaurant. We finally arrived in Auckland and Kath was there to meet us – yippee 🙂  Kath moved back to NZ after about 30 years in England.  We have really missed her and her family who used to live close by our house and we saw each other regularly.  We had a lunch of salads, bread, home made humous, crisps, olives, Feta cheese and miso soup.

So finally, there we were, at Kath’s, in Silverdale which is a suburb of Auckland.After lunch we were taken out for the afternoon.  Our first stop was a village called Puhoi which has a fantastic cheese factory, shop and cafe where they also sell ice-cream.  I had a delicious chocolate ice-cream.

We sampled some of their delicious cheeses. These 2 lovely boys who haven’t seen each for 16 months got on brilliantly and immediately which was wonderful. The buildings here are so pretty; white weatherboard with red corrugated iron rooves.  This is the village library – so cute. You can hire a canoe from Puhoi and sail out to the ocean which would be a fun trip. The church was made of the same materials and also had pretty stained glass windows. Can you see this clever bench built in to this fence?  What an excellent design. We then drove over to Orewa beach which was so beautiful. It is winter in New Zealand but their winters are definitely milder than ours!  A few hardy souls were in the water but I think they all had wet suits on. Most visitors to the beach were just walking along the beach, enjoying the sound of the ocean on the shore and the spectacular views. We drove a little further and watched the sunset over Big Manly Beach, another beautiful beach in Auckland. It was supper time by the time the sun had set and we ate out but I was not hungry so I just had an apple and feijoa juice which was very refreshing.  I think it is the jet lag killing my appetite but I am not complaining about that.

So our very long journey has ended and our holiday has just begun.  Harvey and I are surprisingly feeling ok.  We are tired but have managed to stay awake all day so hopefully an early night and a good night’s sleep will get us over the 12 hour time difference.  I am so excited for tomorrow, waking up in New Zealand, at Kath’s, with more beautiful places to visit and interesting food to eat.