The start of my journey to Belgium !

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Today, it was all go and I was up at the crack of 8am to start (and finish) my packing on the 4 day journey that would lead to Belgium, or ‘Belgique’ as locals call it. The first leg was a very emotional take off from the Napier airport, complete with St John Boys Jack Dillon, Nick Dyne, Regan Mckinlay and Finn Dillon doing a beast of a haka, silencing important business airport conversations all through the Napier airport.. Seriously couldn’t have asked for a better leave, with all the boys, the fam, and of course the girl there. So after some tears, goodbyes, and of course a ton of photos, we (Sammy, Katelyn, Ash and Lisa) Hopped onto the plane to arrive in Auckland airport around an hour away. The take-off was something I hadent experienced a lot before (given this was my first overseas trip, and only my second ever plane ride), but now writing this first entry at 1:50am on the 19^thof Jan ( yes, you read correctly, we just passed over the international date line), I’m a seasoned professional at flying.

So after touching down in Auckland at around 2, I had a catch up with phill, and over some subway had one of the last catch ups we’d have in a while. From there we were bustled together for a group photo, which was when I’d heard that I should have in fact stayed in the airport (and not gone to subway), as Ross, Debbie, and Jerry were having kittens trying to find me, which probably caused mum some unnecessary stress. Then checking in for an international flight, I had to get out everything metal and place it in a tray. After 3 attempts at this, it was nearly certain I was a suicide bomber, and they advised me that the pins on my jacket were the main culprits, and that I should get used to taking them off when I get to LA, as the over-caffeinated Americans don’t take kindly to us folk.

And after a long wait, we were off on the long Jaunt to LA, around 13 hours. The plane meals were….., okay, but being used to dads sesamie ginger leg of lamb, it was dog food. Wow ! interruption, just saw that outside temp is -45% CELCIUS. Chilly. There’s these fantastic computers that have everything from 660’s latest album, to movies of every genre, to radio, but most interesting of all is a flight info channel, which shows you EVERYTHING about the flight. I’m going 927kms, altitude is 10668m, and there’s 7000ks to LA (8 hours). We’re now somewhere between Apia and Avarua, both I’ve never heard of before. Anyways, everyone is asleep now, and I’m full on pre-packaged meals, so au-reviour NZ, Bonjour Los Angeles ! :D.

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