Steve's Journey

[Pulsarblu]

Seriously I like the idea of coming over for a party and fix the pole!

Motherbear, can you wait then August then?? :icon_rolleyes:

Pulsarblu

[Welshgirl]

Just to let those who are interested know.... had a text from Stevey and co this morning to say they were here safe and sound. He's hired himself a 3.5 litre Holden Commodore and was suitable impressed with the NZ winter sunshine!

No doubt he'll post as soon as he's able but thought I'd let y'all know......

[Pulsarblu]

Woohoo!! [smiley=icon_mrgreen.gif]

[MotherBear]

Thanks, Welshgirl. So, they let him in then. Wonders will never cease. Well, if he can get in, I'm sure I can. [smiley=003.gif]

Glad that they've all arrrived safely. Gives you just enough time now to fortify the house and the paddocks before his arrival. A moat sounds good and, while you're digging it, perhaps you'd like to pass by the area where the trench will have to be dug (failing an alternative suggestion).

Pulsarblu, we'll have to await the outcome of the report from the electricity people before we finally decide what has to be done. Taffy was all for selling the house and running away. Nevertheless, I'm sure we'll have some sort of party at some point, hopefully when we come down to NZ next time.

[fisheress]

Can't believe Stevey's got rid of that house at last and is now on his way......or here in NZ! Welcome to NZ Stevey..........good luck to you and the family. And Maggie too!!! Good luck

Fisheress

[SteveyC]

Well if I reply to all those abusive posts, I'll be forever so best treat them with the contempt they deserve, thanks for all you well wishes.

Have some more durge instead. [smiley=icon_mrgreen.gif]

We left home an hour later than we wanted so after a stupidly frantic journey down the airport we got there ok tho. MAN we had too much baggage tho, absolute nightmare, made the journey sooo stressful.

Check in: Lady queried our onward travel arrangements saying we needed a visa to get into OZ, I pleaded ignorance and said I thought I could just arrive as I was a UK citizen, not sure if I was right or not. They let us on in the end tho. During which time I'd obviously made a good impression as they let us off the fact we were 6 kilos over weight limit (would have sucked at 23 quid per kilo). Anyway after getting rid of our baggage we had no timeto stop and hadn't eaten all day before going straight to board (we were that late).

Flight - 12hrs: AAgghhh we were so laden with hand luggage you wouldn't believe as we didn't dare check in anymore as we'd hoped to. Anyway flight (Boeing 747) had 100 empty seats so we were fortunate to have the whole centre row of 4 seats for ourselves and 3 overhead lockers which we duely filled. The bascinet for Isaac came as ordered with travelbag who we booked with. Staff were friendly and well presented. However.....the food was MINGING!!! I'd read that it was sposed to be good with Air Malaysia but even for a curry lover it'd be gross I'm sure. Was expecting noodles and stuff but just got chicken korma, yuk. Claire's vege meal was rough also, I was starving as you can imagine. Luckily the bread roll sufficed and we'd brought some sarnies also. Phew. Mercifully the kids slept nearly all the way so it wasn't anywhere near as horrifically as it could have been.

Kuala Lumpa airport: Fine we hada 6 hour wait so checked into a hotel and paid 27 quid for a room, which was a blessing and extremely good value imho. Freshened up and let the kids let off some steam. No problems boarding the flight and again, the boeing 777 had loads of empty seats.

Flight - 10hrs: The bascinet reservation hadn't been done unfortunately and we were seated in the middle row of 5 seats with 3 seats for us and 2 others next to us, nightmare!!!! Fortunately they relocated us to the front where we had 2 window seats, 5 front row bascinet seats and another 5 behind if we wanted. Awesome. Dead chuffed, leg room is loads more on these newer 777 planes. However this time the staff were a little less friendly, but still professional, until the second half when they became imho incopetent.

An irish bloke had been collaring the stewards everytime they went pass and getting a beer brought to him, whilst swigging whiskey all the flight too. Consequently he was hammered with 4 hours to go and getting quite lary and loud. Started gesturing insults at me after I kept shooting him dagger eyes when he sang at the top of his voice to the radio and harrassing the two asian blokes behind me who didn't speak english. He was quite intimidating, thought I'd smile at him to try and diffuse the tension but it just didn't work. He then proceeded to walk over and play with Isaac and Rupert, then grabbed Isaac out of Claires arms to bounce. Didn't know what to do and the stewards did nothing. They shouldn't even have let him drink that much let alone stand at the back ignoring the situation. Nightmare!!!!

Anyway it was all fine in the end, the bloke was never really aggressive just a stupid drunk irishman, in the end someone else intervined (a kiwi lady) who told him to piss off.

We really bonded with a couple, on the plane who had a son similarly aged. We exchanged numbers and they live in Hamilton so we're going to see them which will be cool. More on our arrival and first few days later anyway, sorry for the HUGE essays(s) they'll get more interesting I'm sure.

Bye for now.

[Glenda]

Yay, Stevey, great to know you are in New Zealand! [smiley=Joyous.gif]

Good to hear you survived the flight and got by the check-in with that missing Oz visa and extra baggage. What is it with drunk irishmen? - we had several on our flight; fortunately, they kept away from us. We also had some daft teenager who kept shouting 'we're gonna crash' ::)

I look forward to reading about your first impressions of New Zealand.

[smiley=Clapping.gif]

[MotherBear]

MAN we had too much baggage tho, absolute nightmare, made the journey sooo stressful.

And you accused me of panicmongering when I warned you about that . Listen to your (surrogate) mother next time [smiley=Punch.gif] . Gloat over and now it?s time to proffer congrats on making it to NZ in one piece. I?m sure we?re all looking forward to your comments and first impressions. Sounds like the Hamilton area is going to get a hammering with all the visiting you?ll be doing.

I can never understand why alcoholic drinks aren?t limited on flights. It?s such a dangerous situation when things get out of hand and you?re 37,000 ft. up in the air in a confined space. Some people get really violent in that state and IMO it?s irresponsible towards other passengers to allow people to overindulge. It?s pure greed on their part because they?re just taking advantage of the free booze and inflicting others with the results of it. I could imagine a really bad scenario putting off already-nervous flyers.

[LilAmy]

Hi Stevey,

Glad you landed in one piece even after your 'interesting' flight shall we say :icon_lol:

Hope you settle in quickly, good to know you're going to meet up with friends you made on the flight across.

Its amazing how you can make friends after spending a few hours on a flight, just goes to show how friendly people actually are.

Hopefully our flight in Aug will have loads of spare seats as well, makes the journey so much comfier.

Look forward to hearing more from you...

[TheWaters]

Thats great to hear. Glad u survived the baggage probs and drunken bloke.

Keep the posts coming, tis all good!

Do you feel like you've come home?

[smiley=icon_mrgreen.gif]