Day 19 (29 July) from Auckland to ,,,

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Today's the day we have been dreading. We are leaving Auckland (ie Caroline) to start the final stage of our journey.

Early start (ok 8 am is early by my standards) for our final breakfast joke with Maria, our wonderful morning hostess. Then it is back upstairs to pack.

After packing we went to Grays Avenue Deli to meet Caroline for our farewell lunch. We stocked her up with various bits and bobs and of course chillies. Then lunch and tears and fond farewells.

Don and I ditched the car at Hertz and checked in at Auckland airport. Then off to the lounge to wait for our first flight of the day - a three hour stint to Sydney. It was a flight - thankfully non-eventful. The flight was delayed in taking off but we made Sydney with enough time to sit in another lounge waiting for our Air China flight.

Air China was an absolute delight. The plane was roomy, the staff so pleasant and the service was excellent. I wished that I ate their meals as the hostesses walked up and down the aisles with plates of interesting things which were so delicately served with chopsticks. Instead we had our tasteless kosher meals. We are not sure what they were meant to be. However, the bed was very comfortable and I was soon off in the land of nod, only to be woken up by an exasperated Don desperately searching for his glasses. Heaven knows how he managed to drop them under the cushion of his seat. This was just before midnight, Chinese time. (To be continued).

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