Our Trip To England To Celebrate a Wedding.

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My, this travelling on long flights gets harder every year for this old man. We set off from Taupo to Auckland, NZ, early on the Tuesday morning of 6th June. About an hours flight. We meet up with Benita, who was traveling to England to attend the same wedding we were going to. After a wait of 3 hours we boarded our Air NZ flight to Shanghai and were very pleased to find that the flight was not to full and we both were able to claim 3 seats each. This made the fight of 12 hours so much easier as we could stretch out and I could actually get some sleep, which is unusual for me. I 'm not good at sleeping on flights. When we reached Shanghai the move to the transfer area was a very long process as we were led, with other transferring passengers, to an area where we had to be registered and then led to another area to have our status of being Govid free confirmed with temperature readings etc. This seemed to take forever, actually about 2 hrs. Then we were led to the departures area to wait for our next flight. This was another 3hr wait but we found coffee and food and with the group that were all waiting for the same flight to England, 12 of us, we found good conversation. Always good to meet fellow travellers and discuss everyones destinations and past travels. Finally on board our Virgin Atlantic flight we were once again delighted to find that we could again procure 3 seats each. It has been many years since we have been on flights that were not full. Arriving at Heathrow, London, after a 14 hour flight and about 36 hours of travel time, we had one of the quickest trips through English Customs we have had. New E gate systems in place and with our NZ passports we felt lucky to avoid the long queues we used to have to wait in. So nice to find Helen waiting to meet Di and I along with Benita, and then driving us the 3 hours down to Corsham. Once there we met up with Annemarie and Corrado who had flown in from Dubai that morning. We were booked into an old manor house hotel, Guyers Hotel, which is within walking distance to Pete and Helens. This allowed us to be of some help to them in the days leading up to the wedding. Blessed by fantastic weather, very high temperatures, the wedding was great with Alex and Kev both looking like magazine cover models. The ceremony was held in Helens beautiful garden and the reception was in the Corsham town hall. Everything was a great success. On the following Tuesday Di and I, along with Annemarie and Corrado left to drive down to Cornwall. Our first night was at an old manor house/ hotel (Welbeck Manor) set on a golf course. We spent one night here and it was beautiful sitting on the patio looking out over the golf course with a wine enjoying the evening and seeing the odd deer wandering the course. After a visit to Plymouth we headed up to Port Issac on the Cornish coast for 2 nights .This is famous for the TV program Doc Martin and also for the 2 films about the folk singers "Fishermans Friends". It is an idyllic place with plenty of walks and magic views of the coast.I enjoy this area so much. Following this we were off to Mousehole near Penzance for 2 nights. Then on to Newquay for a night and a catch up with a couple of Di's cousins. This whole area appeals to me with the interesting coastline, lots of small fishing villages and so much history. Great surf beaches with rocky headlands run for miles. A visit to Tintagel, a prominent headland reportedly the site of the birth of King Arthur. The Minack Theatre an amazing open-air theatre sitting right on the edge of the cliffs. The list of famous artists who have performed at this famous venue is long and illustrious

A few hours drive back up to Pete and Helens to have our final few days there and then off to Bergen, Norway to spend a couple of weeks with Chris, Hege and the girls. Pip/Rod. PS: No Photo's! Having trouble downloading photos so hopeful that I'll have it sorted for next one.

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