Departure

After a scrummy breakfast we bade farewell to our hosts and fellow guests and set off on our return journey to Auckland airport. The weather wasn't as nice as yesterday and when we approached Auckland it started to rain. 

We dropped off the hire car and checked in the suitcases without a hitch and went through security. At the other side Curly suddenly remembered she had a mini carton of juice in her bag that was meant to have been consumed before going through security! Shiny promptly consumed it in a furtive fashion.

At Auckland airport they have an amusing way with announcements when calling recalcitrant travellers to board 'everyone else is on board and just waiting for you Mr Brown'. Shiny was concerned to hear them announce that 'Oslo procedures had been commenced' against a missing passenger.. no doubt imagining some severe form of Norwegian retribution until Curly pointed out that the combination on NZ vowels and his ears had misheard that 'off load procedures had been commenced'.

Our departure was delayed by 30 mins as our plane was late in. We then had a 10 hour rather bumpy flight and are currently writing this late at night in Hong Kong airport (or Singapore as Curly keeps calling it). It is a beautiful airport building btw. 

Our next plane leaves in an hour (about midnight HK time) for Heathrow. We are due to arrive in Heathrow at 5.00am. We're not very good at sums right now, but we think that's a 13 hour flight with the time difference. Hoping for some sleep en route...