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Published: November 25th 2017
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The SIA Airbus A380
This could be the one!! Now folks, there are 'adventures' and 'adventures' and this one will really be a
truly serious and epic adventure! The Kilby's and the Horans (that is, Paul & Mandy and Tim & Sue) are finally getting round to their long promised trip to the other side of the world, a seven week '
holiday of a lifetime' to the land of Kiwis and Kangaroos; the Byrds were '
8 Miles High' the Proclaimers did '
500 Miles',and country music star Dwight Yoakham was even '
A Thousand Miles from Nowhere', but these all pale into insignificance compared to
The Kilboran's Great Antipodean Adventure, covering over 28,000 miles from start to finish, at an average of 4,000 miles a week and equivalent to one and a bit times the distance around the planet! I wonder just how many steps that is on the good old FitBit?
The plan is to spoil you lovely people with a regular record (trust me, I'm not going to commit to daily!) of our journey and although we don't depart until the 4th of January 2018, I thought I would let you have a taster of how future postings are likely to look, namely a vaguely amusing intro (hopefully), a
The Tranzalpine Express
Beats the average commuter train into London!! few facts from the day's (or last few days') experiences, a smattering of photographic evidence and finally, a closing '
thought for the day'.
So, let's get down to a few facts. As I said above, we leave London Heathrow at 10.55am on 4th January 2018, flying Singapore Airlines flight SQ317 to Singapore, landing at 07.50 (Singapore time) the following day. After a couple of days in this Asian Powerhouse (a bit like the Northern Powerhouse, but without wasting over £50 billion on HS2!!), we fly on to Auckland in New Zealand where we 'sort of' rest up for a couple of days. Then, it's off on a couple of amazing road trips, covering almost 2,000 miles across pretty much the length and breadth of both the North and South Islands (although still only scratching the surface of course!); with accommodation booked in Whitianga, Rotorua, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch, Franz Josef and Queenstown, before flying off to Sydney on 23rd January. We will also experience the first of two legendary train journeys on the whole adventure, namely the Tranzalpine Express from Christchurch to Greymouth......................from one side of the South Island to the other.
We do, of course, then hope to
The Ghan
An epic journey through the Red Centre of Oz! a have a '
Wizard' time in OZ, travelling over 6,000 miles and covering big chunks of the East, South and West coasts, although this time barely '
touching the surface' let alone, '
scratching it', with accommodation stops in Sydney, Melbourne, Port Fairy, Robe, Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Yulara (for Uluru), King's Canyon, Alice again, Perth, Ningaloo Reef (Exmouth), Coral Bay and back to Perth, before flying home on Singapore Airlines (via Singapore) on 20th February and arriving back at Heathrow at 07.20 (flight SQ306) on 21st February! The second of our train sojourns takes in the 1,000 mile journey from Adelaide to Alice Springs on the world famous Ghan Train, a 24 hour trip taking in the first half of the train's route from Adelaide in the south, all the way to Darwin in the north.
So that's it folks. The itinerary is sorted, everything's booked and so far, the exchange rates are moving in the right direction! Not sure how we'll all cope, spending quite so long away from the respective grandsons (and their parents, of course), but I suspect that FaceTime will be taking one almighty bashing!
One final thought, as we get ready to impart on this epic adventure. Bearing in mind that we will be covering some
20,000 miles and
spending around 55 hours on aircraft during this trip, it reminded me of a few important '
Laws of Air Travel' that we need to be aware of; which can be neatly summarised, as follows:
• The best way to ensure that your flight leaves on time, is...............to arrive two minutes late; or
• The strength of turbulence on an aircraft is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee; and
• Airline travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo!
AND FINALLY, a final quotation that is extremely apt for our Antipodean Adventure, from the man behind the Peanuts' cartoons, Charles M Schulz, and which goes something like this:
• Don't worry about the World ending today.....'cos it's already tomorrow in Australia!!
Feel free to keep in touch folks!
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Richard Hubbard
non-member comment
Streuth, Bruce!
Wotta crackin' holiday this'll be, Paul (and Mandy!) I look forward to seeing "Episode 2" soon :-)