First Leg of Our Adventure!

Well, we are now in Bangkok after an 'upgraded' flight from Sydney...YUP, we were upgraded to Business Class so spent a very comfortable 9 and a half hours being fed and watered deliciously!

But I'm getting ahead of myself...after a final mad dash to get the house cleaned and our bags packed (overweight!), John dropped us safely at the Auckland Airport. The check-in lady was very nice and calmly asked me if I had a visa to get into Australia as she couldn't seem to find it in my passport. NO!!!!! After all the drama to get the French visa I completely forgot the Oz one...scary few minutes as she checked to see if they could do it electronically for me, which  they could for $30! Next the weighing of the bags, 11kg over that will be $220 thank you very much.  By now, blood pressures were a little high but we pushed on to immigration. As we shuffled our way to the cattle herding pens to wait to have our on board luggage scanned, a lovely lady asked Martin if he would please put his bags on the scales (no more than 7kg allowed)...oops, "I'm afraid Mr Lee you will have to take some things out of your bag like cameras etc which your lovely wife (who was also carrying over the allowed limit) can carry for you". A sweating Mr Lee removed some devices from his bag, hung them around the neck of his lovely wife and was re-weighed, 8kg. "That's fine Mr Lee, have a good trip", said the smiling weigh lady. Once through scanning and a quick pat down for Martin by the 'pat down official' and we could finally find a place to sit down and let the perspiration begin to evaporate!

The trip over to Sydney was uneventful (thank goodness) until we got to immigration. I went through the alien cue and Martin rocked up confidently to the Aus/NZ one. As I was being 'processed' I saw Martin being marched away by a little man to an office area where he was told to wait. Thoroughly bamboozled I joined him in the wait only to be told that it was something about his brand new passport that the Aus computers didn't like but was now fixed. "Enjoy your stay in Sydney Mr Lee!"


We had a great chilled out three days with Walt and Kylie who is blossoming! They are all set up for baby in a couple of weeks and seem very calm and collected about their new impending addition. A great way to wind down after a rather 'busy' few weeks. Oh, and we dumped about 13kgs of gear into a box for Walt to send over to us by surface mail.

That brings me back to the beginning and our very unexpected but most welcome upgrade-what a difference to the first part of the trip!  So, our first day in Bangkok and we are off on a city tour this afternoon but first breakfast! Of course we need more food after 91/2 hours of the best food Emirates could provide us! Will post pictures and more soon.