A Very Long Day But Home Again

Tuesday October 26th

Well it had to all come to an end eventually and today was the day. We got up and cleaned and tidied and did the washing. Hamish had asked for time off to take to us Heathrow and had been granted it. He arrived at 10.30 and loaded up the car with our bags. They were heavy! But we had hand weighing scales and we were pretty sure we were all within our allowance. He signed the key back in at the Guardroom and then drove us to Heathrow. There were no delays and we arrived there shortly after 11am. We asked him to just drop us off and not park as it is a waste of time coming in and costs a fortune.

We did have to stooge around until the flight opened but there are always papers to read. The bags were classed as heavy but well within the allowance of 2 bags each up to a combined total of 46kg . However we were informed that the rules have changed since we booked and in future there is an allowance of 20kg 1 bag each through the States as well now. We were okay becasue was stated at the time of booking held. But that will cramp my shopping next time for sure.

Try as I might I could not get onto the internet at Weatherspoons which was annoying. So no blog got published at the airport as I had intened.

The first leg from Heathrow to LA was really late afternoon and early evening so not much sleeping was done. Of course we had the ridiciulous immigration proceedure in the transit lounge in LA. AS soon as I got back on the plane after the 2 hour transit I just died and don't remember much until having a meal shoved at me. The LA to Auckland leg is a drag and very long. However I practised my old trick of fallihng asleep in front of TV and just dozed while watching movies. It seemed to work but I never really got anything watched properly.

All went well though and we got into Auckland at 6.45am. We took our time, purchased some Duty Free and made our way slowly to domestic for a very long wait. Finally we got the 11am flight to Wanganui and were met by our wonderful house minders and taken home. The place was immaculate and so was the garden. They had really enjoyed living here and taken great care of everything. They had even left the fridge stcoked with the basics so we could get ourselves some lunch.

The trick was to stay up and unpack and not give in the tiredness. We also needed to get at least one of the vehicles up and running. So we took my car for WOF and also relicenced it. Ouch. Tomorrow we will have to do the campervan. Alan's car has packed a real sad and won't start at all.

So it is great to be home but now we have to sort through our vidoes, photos, diaries and books and make sense of it.

The three little kiwis are back on the couch in the hall with all their friends, and Ber Lin has been getting to know the teddies from al the other places they originally came from.

Hemi is parked at Northolt next to Dave the Red Peril of Uxbridge. Hopefully someday soon someone may want to buy him and take him on some more adventures. If not then he may be waiting to take us out again when we go back to visit Hamish in the future.