March 15 - 20
Dunedin to London
March 15
Dunedin to Paraparaumu
Overnight, I worried a lot and decided that the only thing to do was to cut my losses and head for home. Shades of last year although, this time, it was the fear of health problems or the administrative chaos caused by them rather than the actual problems, themselves, which forced my change of plan. As soon as I got up, I packed my bags, breakfasted, said farewell to everyone in Dunedin, loaded the car and drove North. I travelled as fast as legally possible, on a reasonably quiet State Highway One, without being troubled too much by roadworks.
I stopped at Timaru, just over half way, filled the petrol tank and purchased a sandwich at the petrol station. I ate this whilst driving along at speed. My only other stop was in Hornby, just short of Christchurch Airport, where I filled the car with petrol again. I managed to complete about 360 kilometres in just over four and a half hours, which was quite good for me. When I arrived at the rental car office, I was very tired and forgot to collect my NZ road atlas off the back seat.
Once inside the airport, I stood in a queue for about five minutes, realised it was the wrong one, and switched to another one, where I waited for half an hour. When I reached the front, the lady at the desk took another half hour to issue me with a new ticket for Wellington, at great expense, and a new ticket from Wellington to London for nothing, leaving New Zealand a week earlier than the original one and with no stop-offs. That would get me to London thirteen days earlier than originally scheduled. This tested her incomplete knowledge of the IT system to breaking point. In the end, I got a ticket but will have to make an amendment to it as I wouldn't have time to transfer between the Auckland terminals on the day I depart. In the end, that didn't matter.
I waited a short time for the flight to Wellington and was whisked away in an hour with no alarums or excursions. Once there, I reclaimed my bag, found a shuttle and was driven to the station in time to catch the express to Waikanae - except that there was to be a replacement bus all the way from Porirua to journey's end.
Luckily, there was a non-stop bus from Porirua to Paraparaumu, so I probably arrived there sooner than I would have done had I travelled all the way on the train.
Valerie was there to collect me, we drove home, tried to entertain Milo and went to bed.
March 16
Paraparaumu
Eli was dropped off at 06.30, so there was an early start. He was taken swimming and I remained at home to reorganise my bag, yet again, and to prepare myself for the journey home.
|
We spent the rest of the day visiting local shops, doing a little business, taking Eli to the park etc etc. We also had an unsatisfactory visit to the vet's to discuss Milo's status and the fact that his owner still hadn't signed his release documents. We had a quiet evening at home. Right: Milo didn't
know what the
|
 |
March 17
Paraparaumu
I worried about the lack of time that I would have in Auckland between flights on Thursday so resolved to travel the 60 kilometres into Wellington Airport to seek help. All attempts to contact Air New Zealand on the phone were hopeless.
I caught the bus at the end of the road, the train into Wellington and a bus to Miramar, from where I walked for 10 minutes into the teeth of a gale before reaching the airport.
The terminal was quiet and I only had to wait for five minutes to see a ticket agent who put me onto a flight an hour earlier than the previous one. It being nearly lunchtime, I had a sandwich, met Jo for a coffee and we discussed her chances of having a job for more than the next few days.
I repeated my 60 kilometre journey and arrived back at Paraparaumu to find Valerie in a shop in the shopping mall. I took the opportunity to check my emails on the free wi fi and disaster struck. There was a message from Air New Zealand saying that they had cancelled my flight between Auckland and Singapore. My world came crashing down and I went into melt down.
Last year, when I had my heart attack, I wasn't really frightened until I reached Bourne End. There was always someone to ask for help, be it a nurse, a hospital administrator or the insurance company. Even the airline was helpful. This time, I felt completely alone, with all of my usual support systems having failed. Not even my friends in the travel industry could help because I had bought my ticket direct from Air New Zealand who had, in effect, shut down.
In the end, Valerie, who is made of sterner stuff, rang her travel agent, Sally, who managed to find me a flight on Singapore Airlines at roughly the same price as I would have paid on Air New Zealand. She did get a quote from Emirates, which was about three times as much. I must remember never, ever, to fly with them! She agreed to hold the reservation until the morning. Luckily, I had the cash for a second ticket. Without that, I would have been stranded. As events were to show, if I had delayed a day longer, I would also have been stranded.
Still feeling horribly stressed, I agreed to go out to collect a Thai take away. This wasn't bad and probably helped me to calm down a bit. I slept surprisingly well, possibly aided by the news that Milo's owner had signed his release papers, but not by the animal himself, who rushed from bed to bed making quite a disturbance.
March 18
Paraparaumu
We left the house early and arrived at House of Travel just as it was opening. I was soon in possession of a ticket to London. Whilst I was calmer, I was still feeling very stressed. From there, we went to the vet's to sign Milo's new papers and then to the pet shop to buy him a very posh cat flap, the largest one available as befitted an animal of his stature. On the way home, we visited Margaret's new house in the retirement village and then went home to organise a glazier to fit the new cat flap.
I made a few more futile attempts to ring Air New Zealand and then gave up. I became more or less resigned to losing £2000.
 |
 |
|
|
 |
With the sun shining brightly, we drove down to the Waikanae River mouth, and went for a walk through the dunes and then along the beach. It was very quiet, ironic given that it was an area where we could have a long walk but still self-isolate at the same time. In theory, I should have found this very relaxing but my stress levels were still very high. Back at home, we had dinner, then entertained Brian and Maria, who popped in to say farewell. I had another reasonable night's sleep, with more assistance from Milo. He really is a very big pussy cat. |
|
March 19 -20
Paraparaumu to London
I remained reasonably calm as we drove into the airport, just over an hour on reasonably quiet roads. I checked-in with ease - all the way through to London - and said farewell to Valerie. Who knows, it might be for the last time. Easy international travel may soon be a thing of the past.
I made a final attempt to get sense out of Air New Zealand. This time the helpful man I had seen on Tuesday was serving someone else & the man I saw was no help at all. He wore a badge saying he was a Spanish speaker & I hope he was more fluent in that than he was in English. He suggested that I contact the London office, neglecting the fact that it is about to close.
I waited a little while for the International Terminal to open, passed through security and immigration and settled into the almost empty Koru Lounge. We took off on time, the plane was sparsely populated - about six of us in a cabin holding 28 - and the staff were great. The one I chatted to seemed confident that his job was safe. I hope he was right.
Melbourne was simple enough. A tomato juice and some internet in an almost empty lounge. We then re-boarded the same plane and took off towards Singapore.
Nothing exciting happened, the service was excellent and we landed on time. I set off on the long hike to the centre of the terminal, about fifteen minutes, and spotted a screen saying that the next flight had been moved from Terminal Three to Terminal One. This meant a ride on the skytrain - all of one minute long. When I finally reached the transfer desk, they said I could go away and that the Business Lounge was back in Terminal Three.
I retraced my steps, found the lounge and had a shower and some dim sum. It was then time for the long march back to the other terminal, where I passed through the gate lounge security just as boarding was commencing. Perfect timing. The terminal was pretty busy given the circumstances and the time. It was midnight!
Once again, we took off on time. The cabin was much busier than it had been on the earlier flights and there were few empty seats. All went very smoothly, however, and we landed at Heathrow on time, just before 07.00. There was a long walk to Immigration, where I had been given a pass for priority clearance. I was through in as long as it took me to walk the five metres to the desk. There was a little wait for one of my bags, perhaps ten minutes. There were lots of people around, although it might have been slightly quieter than usual.
The fun began when I tried to purchase my train ticket from the machine in the booking hall. It only gave me about a quarter of the change that I was due. I summoned the man who gave the machine a thump, which resulted in another £1 coin appearing. With me still requiring £2.30, he summoned help on his mobile phone. Another man appeared, clutching a bunch of keys, and opened the front of the machine. Inside he found another £1 coin, which he offered to me. I then looked round a corner and spotted lots more coins stuck in a chute. I took the amount that was due to me and left the man to take the rest. It has to be said that both men were very friendly and helpful.
I waited about ten minutes for the train, boarded along with a handful of others and was swept to Hayes in a few more minutes. I carried my bags over the bridge and waited another ten or fifteen minutes for the train to Maidenhead. It was noticeable how quiet it was on the opposite platform where very few people were waiting for rush hour trains into London. I arrived at Maidenhead to discover that I had missed the Marlow train by a couple of minutes. With an hour to wait for the next one, I found a taxi and rode home in style.
The second holiday in a row had ended up in disaster. This time, however, the ongoing consequences looked to be much more serious than last year. Who knows what, if anything, the future will bring.