A hectic and blood-pressure raising day
23 September 2008 | Leaving England
Jackie and Michael
The first part of the day went well and we managed to complete most of our admin. Just needed to get to a PO and a bank at some point. We then left to take our luggage to Air New Zealand freight. First delay was caused by M25 accident and stationery traffic. Managed to find a back way to Heathrow and easily found the freight building. Parked car and went into a large lobby. Nobody around. Eventually found a buzzer and was told we needed to take the luggage round to the back of the building - easier said than done. A building of many corners and the only obvious path we took soon became a struggle through and over undergrowth with a final climb over a wall at the end. Then all we could see were a line of large freight doors - all closed. A further walk eventually revealed a small door into a reception desk. Waited in a queue and eventually served.
First problem was that they needed the registration number of the car to put on the freight document - so had to go all the way back around the building to get it - tried the other direction this time, which avoided the jungle walk. Next problem was that they informed us it would take around SIX weeks - we would not still be in Noumea in six weeks time and needed some of the contents of the luggage before then. After much discussion we eventually spoke to a senior person who said he would try to arrange for it to come on our flight or shortly after.
More filling in forms and we then had to take luggage outside to large door number 3 - ring the bell and someone would come and weight, x-ray and stow the luggage and give details to reception desk. Sounded OK, but ringing the buzzer brought no response and a notice warned us that they would hear the buzzer, but may take some time to answer as busy with other things. Waited and waited, along with other courier staff. Eventually went back to reception and pleaded for some action. They promised to help and eventually large door was opened and luggage weighed etc. Then had to go back to reception and pay. Nobody in reception, but eventually our buzzing produced a response. All staff here worked in slow motion. The man then went to find the details of the weight of the luggage before going away again to produce an invoice. To cut a long story short, we eventually got away after a couple of hours.
After this things mainly went better. We decided to take the rest of our luggage to Heathrow and after parking found to our joy that the check-in desk was already open, so were able to check it in rather than leave it in left-luggage. Went back to the car park, paid our ticket and then were unable to find the car - we had got totally disorientated and were not even able to agree which floor we had left it on. Almost half-an hour later we finally found the car and luckily our ticket let us out of the car park.
Then had to drive to Kerry's to drop off the car, plus need to go to PO and bank. Decided to deal with car first so that we could post the keys to Kerry with our other recorded deliveries. Got to Kerry's with 15 minutes to spare before PO shut, so managed to do PO, but hadn't done bank. We needed to pay in some cheques, and I hadn't got a cheque book or a paying in book, so needed an open bank. Decided to have a quick meal, as now we had checked in, we had a little time to play with. Found a great Italian place in Marylebone High Street, and also found I had a paying in envelope from the bank that they had used to put in some cheques they issued me with the previous day. Great - able to post cheques into bank. Got to Heathrow in perfect time and plane left on time.