Wellington to Heathrow

I recently found the diary I kept of our first UK trip, with my parents and with Karen, in September 1996. With being locked down with COVID-19 and all, Mike went through and typed it all in (with more than a few queries about my handwriting!).

Finished packing the night before. Caught Ansett flight from Wellington to Auckland. Mike was bored and wanted to know, "are we there yet?" even as we were still climbing out of wellington.

We arrived in Auckland at midday and walked over to the International Lounge (follow the blue line) that takes 8 minutes (900m).

We checked in to the Singapore Airlines counter. Got our packs into plastic bags again. Left Auckland at 2:15pm for the 10 hour journey to Changi Airport, Singapore. The food was great. Roast meat and vegetables, perfectly done. The plane was cool. A 747-400 and everyone had a personal TV screen with about 30 channels to choose from.

We arrived in Changi Airport and crossed the Sky Bridge. The airport was spanking new - although that may not actually be the case. It was impressively well looked after. We hopped on a travelator and walked through the shopping area of the Transit lounge. Our packs were going straight through and we had from 8:30pm to 11:15pm to wander around.

Mike bought a new watch and a rechargable battery for his Discman. We then boarded the flight to London.

We sat next to some man called Malcolm that sat on the Melbourne City Council. And boy could he talk.

This leg was 12 hours long. The food wasn't quite as nice on this part, but was still pretty good. The stewardess spilt wine on me though - but hey! you get that.

I slept reasonably well, about 3 hours, and later another 3 hours.