Day 0 - getting there

Today was a very long day.  We left Upper Moutere at 11.30am Tuesday 20th May 2014, and the drive to the airport, although only 20mins seemed to take forever. Once getting into the Koru Lounge and sinking some lunch it started to kick in that we were in for a very long and uncomfortable day of flying. However, we were very excited to finally be on our way. This trip was more than a year in the making and for Chris was the first time in the Northern Hemisphere.

Waiting expectantly in the Nelson lounge

Enjoying some afternoon tea in Auckland

Serious European traveler face

Unbeknown to the kids, we took Mr Piggy with us on our adventures and plan to send them pictures of his adventures overseas.

Mr Piggy enjoying a nice comfy seat in the Auckland lounge.

From Nelson we flew to Auckland where we had a 5 hour stop-over. We sent a postcard to our kids from Auckland airport and enjoyed a nice long hot shower in the lounge as well as a few relaxing alcoholic beverages to help with sleep on the flight. A fat lot of good that did! The 12hr flight to San Fransisco was good as far as flights go but true to usual economy class form, I couldn't sleep. I watched plenty of movies and caught a few naps adding up to about 1hr in total. Mr Piggy however, slept very well as he was able to assume a fully prone position.

San Fransisco here we come

sleeping comfortably

Inflight entertainment

The food was pretty good

Sunrise somewhere near Hawaii

We arrived in San Fransisco at lunch time their time and had 2.5hours to get through customs. Although only transitting through the US, we had to collect baggage, stand in a long line, give them all our fingerprints, have a photo taken, declare any dirt or food and pay for a transit visa. What a rediculous process. Anyway, that took about 1.5 hours and then we were free to go get a beer, and send another postcard.

Chris and I have a tradition that we have a beer in every country we travel to. We found a bar and bought a beer and a bearclaw. We had just enough time to down that before moving to the gate-lounge and boarding our enormous plane. Horray...another 10hrs in the air.

Beer and a bearclaw in San Fransisco

We made it through customs, let's celebrate!

This flight was with Lufthansa and was actually pretty good, the seats were slightly more comfortable, not as many options for movies though. I managed to sleep quite a lot on this flight but did develop a fever in the last 2-3 hours. The air staff were very obliging in serving me scotch for breakfast (medicinal of course).

and now off to Frankfurt

On the bus from the plane to airport

We finally landed in Frankfurt at 11am Wednesday, making it the longest Tuesday ever! Our plane was so big it didn't actually fit alongside the airport gates so we were bused from the tarmac to the airport. Customs was about 30 seconds with no forms to fill out. Although we packed for 15-18 degree weather, it was 25 degrees when we landed and it had been a long time since our last shower. We met up with the rest of the group and drove 50mins to our accommodation. The first thing all of us did was shower. The rest of this day is covered in the next blog (day 1).

Haidee