September 2020.
Thursday 10th-
Sabine set the alarm for 1.30am, after a second rough night sleeping on the floor in an empty house In Swansea, Wales, UK. Finishing off things until our taxi at 4am was a mad rush. I took a whole heap of black bags to the refurbished church near the house as they have a great big black bag bin for their residents.
The local taxi we booked (Phoenix Cabs) was on time and had a car seat for Mioni, our daughter, as promised. I should rate them really well as they were a great service. He dropped us off at Davis Homes, the estate agents so we could drop off the keys for the house through the letter box. Approaching the local supermarket, Lidl, Sabine realised we forgot to get the final meter readings of the gas, electricity and water. The water we could still get as it's outside the property, so the guy drove us back and I got a photo. Along the M4 he wanted to make light conversation but being a typical welsh guy, we hardly understood what he was saying. I just agreed and picked out a few key words from what he was saying to piece together what he was talking about.
We stopped off at Readings service station quickly and got to Heathrow at a reasonable time. In fact the drive there flue by. I've never traveled that distance before where it felt so short. Mind you I did get some sleep along the way. The airport was slightly more sparse than usual, but to be honest it de-stressed me. I used this time to phone Colin, the landlord, and the estate agents regarding the recycling pickup for tomorrow and next week. Someone needs to put the green waste bags back into the greenhouse tomorrow, and deal with the pink bag for next week, as well as take photos of the 2 indoor meter readings we forgot. It wasn't long before our flight. We took off just before 12pm, and this flight accepted smartphone use for take off and landing, So I videoed Mionis reaction at take off (currently viewable in the google share folder as of this posts publication date).
I watched the new Sonic movie. Unbelievably it's a hell of a lot better than I thought it would be. My god it was actually awesome!
A little later I watched Batman 1989. Again, pretty good to be honest. Iconic, and Noir. Very similar to the animated series in its style. I guess that's the point.
I started watching Birds of Prey towards the final leg of the flight.
The plane took 12 hours 30 minutes to Singapore, and Mioni was a good girl, though took to me better than Sabine for comfort.
Friday 11th-
At Singapore, we were directed to the gate next door, along with every other New Zealander. Because we have a baby, we were taken directly there and jumped the queue. Because I'm an idiot and was doolally, I forgot to pick up my bag after security. Our personal assistant noticed I didn't have my bag and escorted me back. What a star she was. We ended up in the same 3 seats in this new plane, but it was at the gate next door to our old one. Everyone from the previous flight pretty much came aboard and the whole procedure took an hour and a half before takeoff again.
Mioni was very distressed at the beginning of this flight. She looked confused and borderline scared. I'm so pleased I previously downloaded some nursery rhyme videos from YouTube onto my phone. It was the only method to calm her down which resulted in her going into a deep sleep.
I watched the rest of the Birds of Prey movie. It's a pretty solid film, but at times feels like it's trying too hard to be Kill Bill.
After that nearly everyone got sleep for the next 5 or so hours, including us.
For both airplanes they served food at the beginning and end of the flights. I believe we were in Singapore in their Friday morning.
I think the plane landed in Auckland at 10.30pm local time, but as I'm typing this on the bus to our quarantine hotel, its midnight. The second plane was a 9 hour flight in the end.
Saturday 12th-
We arrived at the quarantine hotel just after midnight. Its called Waipuna Hotel and Conference Centre, in Mount Wellington, Auckland. It's a 4 star hotel!
A quarantine guy told us what to expect before we left the bus. He said that he manages 8 different quarantine sites and said that this is his favourite one for sure. In the hotel we had to queue three times. First for a few minutes telling a guy who we are and why we're here, the second was with a nurse which was a more in depth paperwork procedure, and finally at check in to collect our room key.
We were finally alone in our room at 1.25am.
It was nice to finally be able to take our surgical masks off that we had to wear since entering the building at Heathrow. And the room had a welcome package with some food. We were showered and in bed by 2.45am.
I woke up at 5.45am after hearing a song thrush which would ordinarily sound weird to me in Swansea. Actually this isn't so bad as if you add this 3 hours sleep to my recent 5 hours in the second plane, that's a full night's sleep right there. I'll probably get sleepy this afternoon though.
It's a glorious sunny day in Auckland this early morning. We had a knock on the door at exactly 7.30am with breakfast outside. What a meal! It was 3x warm porridge, with warm flaky pastries, fresh fruits and yogurt. We had a sheet to fill in to choose our lunch and evening meals for tomorrow. We have so far experienced nothing but kindness the whole journey. Im so grateful. To the staff at Singapore airlines to everyone in NZ so far.
Sabine did some washing in the morning, whilst I had an MTV type channel on the telly, quite a good one too. Mixing good tunes of the past with the present.
We explored the outside area with grass which overlooks an estuary near Mount Wellington. It's amazing to think we are allowed to do this, instead of being stuck in a room for 14 days.
Lunch was at the door at 12 noon. A huge Curry! I'm so stuffed!
We got 3 hours sleep after that and went out to the cafe balcony and bought a hot chocolate each. Overlooking the estuary we saw a flock of kingfishers just at the shore. The tide was in so they were very close by considering. This isolation facility has a public walkway just up from the estuary and after that there is a double fence line. Unlike a lot of other isolation facilities which cater for family viewing times under time slot bookings only, this hotel doesn't need one due to the double fence line being next to a public footpath. There were a few families chatting through the fence too. Very well thought of. The space between the double fence line is about 5 meters. They closed the outside section at 4.30pm, and we got some more sleep. At some point dinner was at our door but we both couldn't eat whatever it was. To full. I woke up around 8.30pm and tiptoed around the room trying not to wake up the girls, and started on creating this blog post on the computer.
I forgot to say that today we did also see a Tui and a Myna bird, which was a nice welcome back.
The girls woke up around 11pm. We are all jet lagged. After a bit I got tired and fell asleep.
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