First Flight
It’s only been two weeks since the last blog, but it feels like lots has happened in the meantime. For starters, we moved 18,000 km away!
We’ve always planned to sell Cyril on, and as predicted, there were a few tears saying farewell. Before we sold him we had to have some minor rust repairs done – not a big job, but we had to wait for two weeks to get him booked into a panel beater. Once that was done, we expected things to move quite swiftly – he was re-registered, listed for sale, and within 24 hours had three people booked in to view him. Indeed, the first people to view him loved him and after a quick test drive, confirmed the sale right there and then. It felt that things were moving pretty swiftly – selling Cyril was the next step in a chain of events that closed one chapter and opened another, and whilst we wanted to start the next chapter, we both wanted to do it in our own time. Cyril’s new mum and dad are lovely and I suspect understood our dilemma, letting us keep Cyril for another week so that we could pack up our gear and organise our departure, as well as one final trip to nearby Rotorua to barrel down the hills on a mountain bike.
With Kiwis unable to leave and with imports limited, the demand for campervans has grown, so we were able to get back our initial outlay for Cyril, the upgrades, and even some of the bigger maintenance issues. Thanks Covid! That’s not the first time I’ve used that phrase, but the first time I’ve done so without sarcasm! All up, I worked out that Cyril cost us $17 per day over the time we had him – not bad for transport and accommodation! And the final calculation for distance travelled was just 45 km per day, a shade under our original arbitrary target of 50!
We’d previously planned a couple of weeks in Auckland to see friends and family on the way out. I realise now that this was a nice “soft exit” – time to adjust to the fact that we’re leaving our Covid-haven, without a clear plan of when we may be able to return. Indeed, even without a clear plan of how we may get back to Aroha. But, with Auckland almost two months into the latest delta-out break lockdown, we had a whirlwind twenty-four hours to say our farewells.
It’s been over 14 months since our previous international flight. Considering that our last flight was “Covid-Air” out of India – so nick-named because of the 19 Covid-positive fellow passengers we shared the cabin with – we weren’t looking forward to the three-flights-in-thirty-hours trip. It’s funny thinking how much I used to look forward to vacation flights with Helen and the kids – spending long hours in close confinement with loved ones was actually a luxury in itself in our previously busy lives. The glamour of air travel has for sure been tarnished!
With Aotearoa New Zealand having been so cut off for the past 20 or so months, the thought of international travel has become quite strange. Indeed, when friends have posted about their travels to distant parts of the world, it all seemed so strange and exotic to us! Needless to say, Auckland airport is pretty much mothballed, with just limited duty free and one café/bar open. By comparison Dubai felt pretty normal, just a bit quieter than normal and we had time for a quick shower and the obligatory purchase of a few boxes of Choco Dates for gifts.
AKL airport 
AKL airport
Gone are the days of travelling light – with several seasons’ clothes and a suitcase full of “boat bits” on an elongated route back to Aroha, we checked in with a whopping 92kg of luggage! And I was grateful that the agent allowed us to check in “just one more little case” to allow us to travel with minimum carry on.
Our three flights had stops in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, although we weren’t allowed off the plane at Kuala Lumpur and a load more passengers joined – so we were packed in like Malaysian sardines on the next flight. I did note the irony as we were sitting on the tarmac, that we were intending to spend much of 2021 in Malaysia. Well, hopefully we’ll be back in a few months’ time. At least the first and last flights were empty enough to allow us to stretch out a bit.
I’ve spent plenty of time in the UK and feel very at home here, but it took me a few days to start to feel settled. I was thinking in a way that being on opposite sides of the planet from family and friends felt both foreign and familiar – it made me realise that being in the same time zone as my NZ whanau (family) for so long this past year is actually the novelty.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen the kids and we’re enjoying staying with Liam and his new girlfriend. I say “new”, since they’ve been going out for over three years and just bought a house together, but this is our first chance to meet her. Thanks Covid!
We forced ourselves to stay awake on the first night to the ungodly hour of 7pm, meaning that we both settled into the new time zone pretty well after just a day or two.
My first impressions in the shops remind me of the Brits’ love of convenience, and the incredible packaging that this entails. It’s a bit disheartening, as we had got used to the zero-packaging stores that are now quite common around NZ. The UK introduced a plastic bag levy back in 2015 but their love affair with plastic has just migrated from the check out to the shelves. Regardless, we are adjusting well to the weather (grey, but not too cold), the strange local accents, and I’ve even changed the units on my google maps to miles!
I’ve only been to Manchester once before, briefly, seven years ago for Liam’s graduation. How fast they grow up! The city strikes me as a very vibrant and ‘cool’ city – far from the image I had of it in my head. I’m quietly jealous that Liam’s chosen this cool city to settle in.
It’s taken a few days to get our heads around the Covid situation here – that Covid is all around us. Vaccination rates in Aotearoa New Zealand have just passed an impressive 90% for first jabs, indicating that in three or four weeks, fully vaccinated (currently 80%) with reach this level too. Conversely, the UK has lower vaccination rates and a stunning 40,000 daily cases – NZ has had 8,000 since the beginning of the pandemic. Mask wearing and scanning is “recommended” but not mandated in England (Scotland and Wales are stricter) and with poor “leading by example” by politicians, only around 5 or 10% of people we see in crowded public spaces bother.
We’ve spent our first days here researching EVs (Electric Vehicle cars) and property, both of which we intend to buy on this visit. We’re looking forward to catching up with Helen’s side of the family and friends over the coming months. The rough plan at the moment is to stay here in the UK until around February next year, then we aim to get back to India and to Aroha.
Follow and like us to be notified of future blogs!
www.facebook.com/ripeningnicely
