2. Heathrow to Christchurch - Part 2

I am writing this post sat in my new home for the next year in Waitaki, North Otago. Although I am not going to talk about it until my next post, as I have only just unpacked. This second chapter is about the second half of my journey to NZ. It is only a short one because I was asleep for most of the flight from Singapore to Christchurch.

I got an aisle seat this time, as opposed to the middle seat i had on the first leg. I definitely made the most of it and stretched my legs from my row (36)  to row 8. I probably tripped up between 10 and 15 other passengers over the course of the flight and was run over at least twice by food trolley. But I didn't get cramp in my calves. (I will be talking about calves of a different type in future blog posts).

I was sat next to the worlds most polite couple ever. They were Japanese, and if I was to guess at their ages, I would say between 30 and 80. They repeatedly tried to initiate conversation with me (even when I had my headphones on). When I said I was British, they obviously asked if I was from London. When I said 'No, miles away, North,' they suggested Manchester.  I said I was, even though I'm from nowhere near there. 

Much hilarity ensued later on when the air steward with the food options tried to be too clever and spoke to them in Chinese. When they said that they were Japanese he looked mortified. This was after a 5 minute description of the menu. 

When the plane (this time an average Boeing 777) neared NZ, the sun began to rise over the Cloud Sea, which was over the South Pacific / Tasman Sea, and it was magnificent. It was the best sunrise I have ever seen, even though it was through a tiny round window on the other side of two Japanese. I got my camera out and asked Mr Japan to take a picture for me, thinking he would be a pro photographer. He wasn't. 

This is what he took.

I showed Mrs Japan and she also wasn't impressed. She made us all swap round (despite my feeble protests) so I could take it myself. I feel like I got to know Mr and Mrs J very well at this point because the food trolley was coming past at the same time so we couldn't use the aisle to re-shuffle. 

I took this photo, which still doesn't do the sunrise enough justice.

We got back into our own seats and strapped ourselves in for the descent to Christchurch. As we broke through the top layer of cloud cover Mrs J got very excited because she could see mountains. I looked across and I could also see them, it looked awesome, and I'm sure I saw where Gandalf et al (2001) had hiked on their way to Mordor. 

I was made against my will to swap seats again to take a picture, even though the seatbelt light had been on for about 20 mins. Even the air-hostesses had strapped themselves into their backwards facing seats by the kettles. Anyway we had another mini game of airplane twister and I snapped away like a Japanese tourist, but better.

Pretty awesome huh?

After the pilot overshot the airport and had completed his corrective steep banking (insert financial climate joke here), I landed in crisp, wintery New Zealand.

On the way out the biosecurity police looked at every single bit of my clothing in my suitcase to check for mud. There was none, because my mum washed all my clothes before I went, obviously. Who travels with a suitcase full of dirty clothes?

A bloke was waiting at the massive arrivals sign with a sign saying ' FREDDIE LAWDER', unless I, or him, were very much mistaken, he was my new boss and also my lift to my new home, workplace and base from which to explore NZ. It turns out he was, luckily. 

In the next blog post, I will talk about my first impressions of my new house (bungalow) and much more. Right now though, I am going to continue with my jet lag and try out the shower. 

Thanks for reading!