New Zealand, New Adventures, New Nuffield Adventures Day 1

It almost seems unreal to actually be in New Zealand!  The flight, although long, a total distance of almost 20,500 Km seemed to fly past, excuse the pun, which I suppose is a credit to Emirates airline.  During the run up to actually setting off I had some doubt about the authenticity of the website; who shall remain nameless, so when I checked in and I actually had a seat I was slightly more relaxed.  I set off form Birmingham airport, in the United Kindom, an hour up the road form home, another bonus on Sunday evening 23rd November.   The picture above shows the sun rising, whilst flying at around 39,000 ft over the desert sands of the middle east and it was stunning.  The skyline high-rise views as the plane landed in Dubai were also impressive although slightly cloudy.  A short lay over in Dubai and we changed planes this time boarding, for my first time, an Airbus A380-800 which was a beautiful plane.  The entertainment package was great with many options, comfortable spacious seats, the food delicious, and warm hand towels were regularly passed around by the cabin crew (very refreshing).

The airbus flight was the long one, travelling across the east Indian sea and arriving early morning for a quick stop at Melbourne in Australia.  This trip was just over 12,000Km and took almost 13.5 hours.  I was trying to follow a great tip to reduce the effects of jet lag and setting my body clock, meals and sleeping patterns to the time of my destination, so during the trip to was eating and thinking New Zealand time which was quite a challenge.  For those of you on twitter I actually did some tweeting from the plane which was highly entertaining (for me).  It's great to know that you can still be in communication even whilst flying.

I finally arrived in Auckland; lunchtime on Tuesday, and having passed successfully through a stringent security check; which as an island I totally agree with, headed out to meet my touring mate for the next two weeks Tom.  Tom flew via Singapore and arrived an hour ahead of me.  We collected the hire car and headed South on highway 1 through Hamilton, to a small town and found the Matariki Motor Lodge in Te Amamutu.  Our adventure has begun!