And the journey begins

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Sunday December 20 – I finished work on Friday and had the weekend to prepare for the trip. At first, I was disappointed to leave on Sunday, losing out on two days of New Zealand, but having that time to relax and pack was quite good. And yesterday I was not feeling well all day, so having another day to recover was great. Our first flight was at 9:45pm, from Zurich, so in the evening we took the train over and had some time at the airport once we checked in. This is always the worst time for Jeroen, as he hates flying. But once we were in the air, everything was fine. We flew Emirates, and they had pretty decent leg room, so he wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable, leg-wise, as he has been on other flights. It was the largest plane they make, the A380, a double decker that holds about 600 economy class passengers downstairs and much fewer business and first class passengers upstairs. Amazing.

This flight was six hours to Dubai. We ate, watched movies and tried to sleep a little. In Dubai we changed planes and had to go through security again. We didn’t really like the airport at all – big, but it felt badly designed.

Our second flight was 13 hours to Brisbane. This is such a long time to be on a plane that you don’t even think about how much time you have left or when you can leave. You just have to resign yourself to the fact that you are never getting off the thing. I watched a movie while I ate and then tried to sleep. I slept on and off, mixed in with some reading. The seats were not that comfortable, which is a shame. Trips to the bathroom are about as exciting as it gets at this point. In Brisbane we had to go through security again, even though we were getting on the exact same airplane again to continue our flight. But the airport in Brisbane was quite comfortable, with a lot of couches and places to sleep. We took advantage until we had to board the plane again. The final flight was 3 hours to Auckland. When we arrived, we were twelve time zones and two days ahead of when we started.

At the airport in Auckland, Jeroen had his hiking and running shoes cleaned of the mud on them, as New Zealand has very strict biocontrol regulations. After that we got some money and then found the airport shuttle bus we were taking for three hours to get to Tauranga, where we would pick up the campervan. We both slept for much of the ride there.

When we arrived, we met Xander, a Dutch man who runs Tulip campers along with his Dutch/Kiwi wife. He showed us to our room, since we were staying in his B&B that night. He then went off to fetch us some dinner – really good fish and chips. He left us to it with the promise of being back in the morning. We had dinner outside and then we crashed quite early. After killing the two mosquitoes in the bedroom, Jeroen fell asleep within one minute and I read for a short time before sleeping.

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