some pics

Bugger, just saw that the photos are posted back to front in order - will get to grips with it yet!!
Some photos of our day in London, there is one in Hyde Park of the NZ war memorial that Dave Dobbyn recently opened with "welcome Home"

1st day in London!

We are here!!

Got to London after getting caught in air congestion at heathrow and circling round and round and round till we could land!!! A long flight but no stress at all.

Heathrow is an eye opener - you walk for miles it seems and everyone is in such a hurry! Lots of queues but we were given fast track immigration passes and by-passed them all!

Managed to sort the tube with the help of our first english lady at the counter- very helpful and sweet, then down the escalator to the tube, where we encountered our 2nd english person. A young guy in a big hurry to get passed us to the train, which shut on him as he made a dramatic dive for it and he yelled at us "oh you...... fecking people"! said in a very english accent. I had to laugh as unfortunately you get that in airports where people have suitcases!!!! Never mind..

Found our hotel ok- getting there was a bit of work with luggage, but there were no stressed words at all- we made a good team really since we were knackered! Hotel is really good, small by our standards but I knew this in advance. It is clean, has air conditioning and tea and coffee, so its great!

We went to bed around 9.30pm england time and thought we would crash all night after being up for 24 hours, but Graeme and I were both awake after 4 hours?!@#@! So a wee bit tired today!

Dad coined it beautifully on one of their trips to england where he told Mum that her eyes "looked like boiled sweets on sticks"!!!! That is EXACTLY how they feel, like the red, stripey cremota lollipops!!!

Had a amazing day today Saturday- our first in London and picture perfect blue sky, couldnt have asked for better. They said on the radio that it has been the warmest April in 140 years.

Did a hop on, hop off bus tour of London today and a Thames cruise. Amazing to actually see the sights you always dreamed of and experience the feeling of the city. More foreigners than londoners and lots of foreign languages being spoken everywhere! Funny, have posted a pic of the 3 of us outside buckingham palace and I had put an apple core in the gutter outside as there were no rubbish bins anywhere, and Graeme growled that you DONT litter outside the queens house - so I went back and took a photo of it as proof of my insolence!!!

Quiet night tonight to catch up and we will hopefully get to Chatham tomorrow to meet my cousin and neice for the first time.

Hope NZ is still warmish and sunny?!
Denise:-)

NZ- KL we are here!

We had a great flight to KL, 11 1/2 hours, and cant say enough about Malaysia airlines - they are fantastic. Golden/ business class is even better than we expected. We had the 3 front seats in the middle row, was a bit of a stuff up and they didnt have our seat requests but it all worked out fine and we were all together - just no window.

Danni and I were like little school kids, playing with the 17 seat adjustments from flat bed to massage.

Snob Note #2 - There is now no other way to travel!! Peeked through the back curtains and all those people crammed in to economy, kids crying and everyone looking knackered at the end - just doesnt look very healthy for long haul. Felt like I should go back and offer some deserving person my seat!! However, I managed to survive!! and we thoroughly enjoyed it all. The cabin crew remembered our names and they cant do enough for you- even down to opening the toilet door for you.

We arrived on time at 8pm local time and midnight NZ time. The hotel at the airport is gorgeous- very opulent and the staff (all muslim) are extrememly courteous.

We are so glad we decided to break the flights as hot showers and kingsized beds were what we needed! Slept well- asked Danni this morning how she slept "TERRIFIC" she said!!

The hotel restaurant offered an amazing spread for brekky, all part of the room cost. We are really impressed with how it is set up for the tourist.

We are now in the KL airport again ready for our next leg to Heathrow London, is a slightly longer flight at 13 hrs I think - we are in a 747 aircraft and are seated upstairs - yehah, now I know how Helen Clark always manages to look fresh after her flights overseas!!
Cya all when we are in England. :)

At Auckland airport

Hi All,
we were picked up no problems at 9am by the airport shuttle. Decided to go this way as it is too hard to say goodbye to family otherwise!!

Arrived at the airport just after 11am and practised the first part of learning to be a snob- bypassed a humongous queue at Malaysia, straight into the golden class line - No queue! Im afraid to say even though I am against elitism, I could DEFINITELY get used to this!!!

Then up to customs and a little peeved to see that they are now making you pay for the plastic bags they enforce you use for liquids etc??!! What a money making venture! Shouldnt they provide them if they make you use them??

Anyhow, got thru customs no worries and into the ?Koru class lounge. OMG ! Trying to act like we have been many times before, there is a buffet bar with endless food and any drinks you desire - all before you even get on the plane!!

About to leave to get on the plane- they have unfortunately stuffed up our seating, so we are now in the middle aisles, no window for Danni :-( but at least we are all together. Need to be relaxed about airports we decided, since we will be in so many!

So its goodbye New Zealand- hello Kuala Lumpur !!

Cya :-)

3 DAYS TILL HITTING THE SKIES!

Hi everyone,
Check out the hiddy sunnies in the pic!! Graeme saw a shop that had 3 for $20 and made us go and pick the most 'out there' ones they had. Problem is he really likes his 'flys eyes ones' ??!!@$@%#!&!!

Ok now we are excited and nervous !!! Also feeling glad we have broken the 25 hour journey in two now we are getting close to going! Also will be good to see a tiny bit of Kuala Lumpur on the way.

Cant imagine what we are about to see on the other side of the world but Graeme and I are looking forward to trying out our french and italian from the classes we took. Graeme will just need to wave his arms around alot to get his point across!!

Danni is so excited, she is speaking in an unnaturally high voice all the time!!

Thanks for the comments - keep them coming.
Will check in once we get in the air. Apparantly Malaysia airlines have internet access on the plane in our class, if you have a laptop, so should be able to post on here & maybe send a photo!

Cya
Denise

2 weeks & 5 days till europe!

Getting ready to go, I will be posting my diary on this blog page for everyone to read as we go along.

You can either read the diary on the front page, or if its not visible you can click on each of the separate days entries on the right hand side, where it says "previous".

You can also leave comments for us to pick up at the next stop.

If you aren't a member, just click on 'comments' at the bottom of the days entry next to the date, choose 'anonymous' and write in your message to us... but remember to leave your name at the end, so we know who it is ! The just click on 'publish' and its all go.

Look forward to hearing from you all!!