Auckland, Shanghai, Zurich

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The trip to Zurich was just another long flight. At least we had most of Monday at home so that we could watch the school cross country race. Both Deken and Mila won their races and we are all so proud of them. They ran to win and win they did. It's great to see that our grandchildren are growing up to enjoy sport and not too much time spent sitting looking at phones.

We left New Plymouth at 6pm, had a wait of 4 hours in Auckland, then a 11 eleven hour flight to Shanghai. Air New Zealand was okay but not up there with the best we have travelled with in the past. We flew out of Shanghai over the huge sprawling city and surrounds and it was amazing to see how people have been piled into a mega city. There is the dense central area and spread out from there are pockets of massed apartment buildings. Then, pockets of enclaves of settlements but not just a few. The many villages were surrounded by market gardens but it is the sheer numbers that beggared me. The population of New Zealand many times over crammed into one location and this is just one of many in this country. To me it is like a battery hen factory - people piled on top of each other producing labour and not eggs. God help the world if this is it's future. Back to travel. Our route was over Mongolia, the "Stan" countries then Russia to St Petersburg and curving back down across the Baltic Sea, Germany and Switzerland. It was cloudy most of the way so there wasn't a lot to see. However, the flight was marred by Swiss Air's entertainment system which did not work! After 4 reboots we still could not get sound or picture so had to endure 12 hours of flight with nothing but the back of the seat in front of us. We did complain and with apologies we did get some boxes of chocolates which we do not think adequately compensates for the lack of the service. More to follow on that. So, a very long flight indeed.

We were met by Marc at the airport and driven mainly on motorways out of Zurich towards Chur before turning off to the Glarus Canton. This is the smallest canton in Switzerland with about 40,000 people living in the valley. It is a valley sitting between Lucern and the eastern side of Switzerland. It is pretty, typically Swiss and surrounded by high mountains.

Irvahn and Sophia were there to greet us at their new home in Haetzingen a little further up the valley from Glarus town. First we had a walk around the house section and them inside the home. They have really scored a beauty of a house of 3 floors, 5 bedrooms, a large living area, 2 bathrooms, a garage, a cellar and a bunker. It has all been tastefully redecorated and really they could not do better. After a bit of a chat and settling in, we had dinner and off to bed for an early night to settle into the new time zone.

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