Getting to Paris

You really do feel so far away from Europe when you have to spend 30+ hours travel to get here.  But in saying that I have met some really nice people on my 3 flights.

Leg 1 - Wellington - Sydney.  I was sitting next to a lovely lady and son who were on their way to Heathrow to meet her husband, they had never left New Zealand before and the son was so excited.

Leg 2 - Sydney - Dubai.  I sat with a lovely lady from Zurich, she was on her way home after having a holiday in  Australia.  I personal got to have a few good hours of sleep, around 6-8 I think which helped the 14.5hour trip go faster.  

I managed to take this short video of the take off and landing into Dubai

Leg 3 - Dubai - Paris This part of the trip had the most “Entertainment”.  I’ll try to keep it short.  We left Dubai 2.5 hours late, "due to medical reasons".  We all boarded the plane as expect, closed the doors and pulled out of the gate and started down the tarmac then we stopped, 45 mins we sat, then we pulled into a gate and a crew member was being exchanged for another.  While this exchange was going on a lady 5 rows up unfortunately dropped her 2 month old baby on its head, it sounds so sad just writing this.  I think she was just so exhausted, well the husband was non too pleased with her, and the chef purser took the next hour  explain to them we could no take off with the baby onboard, and that the medics would need to escort them to the hospital.  Once they left the plane, it took them another 30 mins to get their luggage out of the hold and us new flight plans.  They also added some more fuel to the aircraft to help increase our flight time.

There was some amazing scenery on the way over to Paris and I managed to take a few shots out of the window, looked very snowy through the clouds.  We finally arrived in Paris only 1.45mins late.

On arrival in Paris was my Mum sitting waiting very patiently.  I was lucky to catch her before leaving England to let her know we would be late in.

We made our way to the RER and headed for Guard de Nord.  By 5pm we were are the apartment.  

All in all great flights and nice to be here and finally in holiday.

Day 1 of 2017's Europe Trip

So the trip is about to begin.  I am the first to leave on this amazing "Bucket List" checking off trip.

Today I fly from New Zealand to Sydney 4 hrs, wait 3.5 hrs and then fly Sydney to Dubai 14.5hrs, wait 3.5hrs, then fly Dubai to Paris 7.5hrs thats a total of 33 hours to look forward to :)

There are a few things even in the first leg I have not done, so it will be so much fun:

1. First of all, and sorry to say, this is my first ever trip overseas that does not involve Air New Zealand taking me somewhere, I feel a little sad about that, they have always been my home away from home, after growing up on Teal and Air New Zealand Aircrafts.  
2. From Sydney and on through to Paris, I am going on my first A380 aircraft this is the most exciting part of my next 30+ hours of life.  I will have plenty of time to look around, and I hope to get some good sleep on this part of the leg.
3. I have never been to Dubai before.  This has been on my bucket list since before I meet Mike, and has been a little bit of a sticking point, as he got to spend a week in Dubai on business when we lived in the UK.  So I am pretty happy to be at least have a look as we fly in and out.  One day we will do a stopover.
4. Flying in Paris, also a first for me, I have always driven or trained to France, so I will get a new look at the landscape on the way in.

The next 40 hours are going to be filled with so much, I am now getting really excited to finally be getting on my way to see some of the northern hemisphere.  Keep posted for new updates. at least for the next two weeks we have internet readily available so will be posting most days.

Talk to you all soon

H