Mad dash round the world

I am currently waiting for the first leg of my dash round the world to board. From auckland I head to Singapore then on to the UK.
Normally I spend around 3 weeks in the UK when I head home. This time I get two and a half days then it's off the Antwerp via Brussels on the Eurostar.
The main reason for this trip is to attend the NAV TechDays conference. Hoping there will be lots of interesting things around the next release of NAV being show and talked about.
Friday it's back on Eurostar and back to the UK. Saturday morning off to heathrow and fly back to New Zealand.
I am also aiming to catch up with some friends but as time is limited I won't get to see many of them. Also as I have never been to either Brussels or Antwerp before I am hoping to get some time to have a look around.
Should be a full on week.


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Location:Hape Dr,Auckland Airport,New Zealand

Scotland part 2

Thursday saw a beautiful clear sky and warm sun. Today we had book to go to the Isles of Mull and Iona. After Breakfast we boarded the ferry to Mull. While on this trip we weren’t going got go and see Duart castle I did get a chance to take photos of it from the ferry.

Once we got to Mull itself we were met by the coach and were soon on a nice trip towards Iona. The driver was very knowledgeable and gave lots of information about the island and what we were seeing around the coach.

Mull is beautiful rugged place, and there are a number of old ruined houses. These mainly date back to the times of the highland clearances, when many of the local population were shipped overseas. This has led to the population of Mull dropping to around 3000. At its height there were around 10000 people on the island.

While we didn’t see any eagles we did see a couple of red dear.

Once we got to Fionnphort we crossed to the Isle of Iona. The isle houses an abbey originally founded my Saint Columba in the 4th or 5th century, and it is only in the last 40 years that the island has passed from private ownership. Iona was also beautiful and we passed the time looking at the old nunnery, abbey and by hiking to the top of Dun 1. From there we got superb views across the western isles of Scotland.

Scotland

While on my trip home mum had arranged for a trip to Scotland for a few days.

So Tuesday Morning we went to Stanstead to catch a flight to Glasgow. The flight was with Ryan Air. I hear people give them a hard time for hidden costs and poor service but really as a budget airline I found them fairly good. I mean you do have to pay for everything, and i mean everything including checking in to your flight, but it still cheaper than flying with some of the other airlines.

The trip up was pretty smooth and once in Glasgow, we pick up a car and headed towards Oban.

Scotland being Scotland had fairly changeable weather. We arrived to over cast skies, by the time we reached the bottom of Loch Lomond it was raining, but after stopping for some food it cleared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent a bit of time taking photos and then carried on up the side of the Loch, stopping at Tarbet to take some more shots. The weather stayed fine. 

As we headed on again slowly the rain came back on the drive but again by the time we got to Oban it had cleared.

Went for a walk around the town to get information on what else to do while here and have some dinner. While we were eating the rain came back, but fairly quickly passed.

In the evening we went to McCaig’s Tower. Built in the last years of the 1800’s , it was commissioned by John Stuart McCaig. He was an esteemed banker and land owner in Oban. He had seen that a good number of he local masons had very little work over the winter months so he commission a memorial to be built for his family. It was only worked on in the winter months and took 7 years to build. It offers splendid views over the town and nearby Isle’s

Holiday Time

Every couple of years I try to get back to the UK to see family and friends. I was last home in 2008 so it was time for another trip.

2010 also sees my eldest son turn 18, how time passes. This was used an an excuse to have a big family get together. I got to talk to some of my cousins that I haven’t seen in 8 years. Some had changed, some where still very much the same.

It is always nice to catch up with family, and it’s something I don’t do very often, so I’d like to say congratulations to all of my cousins that have gotten engaged, married or had kids since I last got to see you. Hopefully it won’t be 8 years before the next time.

Roll on September

So August has gone by and I thought it would be a good time to look back at what I have done over eh last month and think about what I want to do over the next one.

August was a good month for me. Mainly because I had family visit from the UK for most of it. It's always good to catch up with family. Since moving to New Zealand I really only get to see family once a year and as I aim to go home every other year I only see the extended family every other year.
This year has been a bit different. I was home for the grand total of 8 days earlier in the year for a funeral, but mum still decided to come over for 25 days.
In the past, my eldest has come along as well but this year he wanted to stay home and hang out with his friends, but then he's 15 now so I guess they are way cooler than going to see dad. This meant that we could do some different things this year. As I didn't have any leave left to me the options for going away were limited but we did manage to do a fair bit.
We did a day on Waiheke Island in Auckland. I have been to the island twice before  but only to the main town by the ferry terminal so it was really nice to go for a look round the rest of the island.

We also spent a weekend in Melbourne. This was my first proper trip to Australia, having only ever transited through Sydney in the past. We spent the weekend exploring the main town center. It's always interesting to see how things run in other places.

Melbourne's Tram network is very reliable and easy to use. The city itself is very nice and even though it was winter we were very luck with the weather. The only time it really rained we were inside, on the whole, it was warm enough to sit outside and eat even in the evenings.

Mum also spent a fair amount of time touring around Auckland Region and sightseeing around the town.
Looking towards September I want to get back out with the Jousting Group a lot more. I'd also like to try and get out at least once to go scuba diving. It's been a long-term plan to go at least once a month and so far I have failed. This summer I want to make a much bigger effort, so we shall see.

Holiday Journal - June 26th Flights to the UK

Having managed to get last minute flights to the UK I had a flurry of activity on the morning of the 26th June.

After getting up and finishing the last of my packing. I got taken to the airport instead of having to leave my car in the car park at some extorsional price.

After booking in and passing immigration control I had a few hours to kill so milled around the shops.

Once we got called to the gate I found my seat and got settled in for the first leg of the trip. We pushed back from the gate on time and all was looking good. Then the pilot came on and said we had to go back to the gate as someone onboard had left their bag in departures with all their paperwork in it.

After collecting this and pushing back again we got out of Auckland. It was a nice clear day with great views over the city and surrounding country.

Climbing to cruising altitude we headed for Sydney. Not long before the meal was due we hit turbulence and the pilot informed us that there was heavy weather ahead and was going to climb over it. This put us into a stronger headwind and would cause us to be slightly late in.

The flight was nice and smooth, and then we started our descent to Sydney and into a bit of a rollercoaster ride. The turbulence was back. Now I get to fly into Wellington, NZ, fairly often and that is meant to be a bumpy ride, but this was far worse.

Finally we got through and dropped below the clouds. While Auckland had been nice and sunny, Sydney was wet and grey.

We finally made it to the terminal but by this time we were 30 mins late and a number of us were meant to be boarding the flight to Frankfurt via Singapore. So a quick dash through Sydney airport, with a stop for security control just encase we had managed to get hold of something since boarding in Auckland, got us to the gate for the next flight.

We hussled on and found our seats. And sat there, and sat there and sat there. The pilot came on and told us there was a discrepancy with some of the paper work that had to be filled in.

We finally got pushed back about an hour late and started the trip to Singapore.

This was a nice flight. Spent a fair amount of time flicking through the entertainment and settled on music and read my book.

We made up a bit of time on the flight and they decided to keep the turnaround time in Singapore right down. So 40 mins later we were back on the plane and headed for Frankfurt.

Spent the first part of the flight trying to sleep. No matter what I try those economy seats just don't allow for anything approaching decent sleep. Started to flick through the entertainment again. At some point my screen decided to play up and put all movie and TV shows into negative. By this time I was fed up with the music and radio stations so even though the colours were all off I watched a few of the TV shows. And then back to music and another attempt at sleeping. I think I must have dozed through the next couple of hours because next thing I properly remember the lights were back on and breakfast was being served. After that it was back to my book for the approach to Frankfurt. We had made up time on this leg as well so instead of arriving half an hour after my onward flight was meant to have departed I arrived about 15 mins before. So I raced round Frankfurt airport to find my connection

Got to the gate to find that the plane was being held and the flight was going to be 15 mins late leaving. Once we got onto the plane we got the news that the paper work was wrong (again) and we missed our slot for takeoff. Once everything was finally sorted we were about 45 mins late leaving. After a short hop we hit the holding pattern at Heathrow. Finally got in an hour late.

Once I got picked up and taken home I decided that I really had to try to stay awake, we landed at around 9am UK time and I had been on the go for something like 37 hours with little sleep.

I managed to stick it out until 4pm when I finally passed out. I woke up at 3am. Ah well