You’ll put weight on
31 August 2017 | Auckland, New Zealand
Last night I could not sleep due to my impending flight to New Zealand. I nodded off for about a half hour at a time, so at 04.00 I got out of bed and had a shower, the temp gauge was reading 26c. I zipped my last few things into my bag and went out to get the taxi (I was over 90 minutes early) but it was there waiting. Then whilst at the airport I walked into the executive lounge, there was breakfast laid on and I was the first in by almost an hour, so I set about demolishing the food drinking coffee and eating toast and marmalade, muesli, scones, mini cakes, bacon and beans sandwich and plenty of fresh fruit. The flight was called to the gate and I was ushered past all the other passengers and onto the aircraft, at this point I turned left and sat in this huge seat with all sorts of controls from sat upright to fully laid down and my own personal 19 inch monitor. The stewardess came and gave me a dark rum and lemonade (it was very nice) then along came fresh orange juice, coffee, muesli with yogurt savoury creps with Bombay potatoes, buttered scones and jam, more fresh fruit. I was absolutely stuffed but I could not turn anything away this morning. The service was brilliant and all for about £10 extra on top of my cattle class fare. When I got to Auckland I spent time trying to drop one of my bags off until I fly again. Which was unsuccessful. Then I logged on to Airb&b and got a lovely room for £20 per night with breakfast included. The owners were called Kizzy and Sunny, they are a very pleasant couple and more than helpful. Kizzy picked me up from Auckland town centre, which is almost 30 minutes’ drive one way.