A Few False Starts

 Oh where to start, I was book to fly with Singapore Airlines, starting with a flight out of Wellington on the 30th of March on a 10.45am flight.  However I woke up to the following news "Passengers face long waits as fog disrupts Wellington Airport flights". We headed to the airport, "How bad could it be?"

Half way to the airport I had a text from Air NZ that SQ440 from Wellington to Auckland was cancelled!  Mike pulled off the motorway at Ngauranga Gorge, and we parked up for a bit, with two cellphones I was on hold with both AirNZ and Singapore Airlines to figure out next steps.  Then I noticed my AirNZ App updated

Excellent, we are off again, "To the airport please driver".  The family dropped me off, bit foggy for the traditional family photo at the airport, and I headed into the airport.  I was pretty excited, I had Premium Economy booked from Auckland to Singapore so I was able to do Priority checking, in the queue I was, smile on my face and ready to go.  Got to the counter and lovely gentleman said after a few minutes, "You will need to go down to Ticketing at the end mam, I can't check you in for the new flight".

Down I head, queue again, to only find out that my new flight had also be cancelled and to be told I would not be able to make it out of Wellington today.  Quick on the phone to Mike, "Where are you?  Can you cone back and get me?"  I was home again by 11.30am.

An hour on the phone with Singapore airlines left me with a new flight out on the 5th of April!!  and an added expense of $1700.  I had 24 hours to decided and get back to them.  I have to say it took 2 calls at this point, I kept being asked why I didn't turn up for my flight.  They didn't believe me that my flights had been cancelled and well lets just say this wasn't work out and I was rather stressed at this point.

On the internet and found a oneway to London via Vancouver on Air NZ and Air Canada, $1,200 and leaving this afternoon at 5.15pm.  Booked, but I needed a supervised negative RAT test, off to the Pharmacy and $60 later I was ready to go.  Stress cleared let's watch some TV for a few hours then off to the airport at 3pm.

2.45pm hits, another text from AirNZ, your 5.15pm to Auckland is cancelled!  well this was most defiantly not going to plan, and on the phone to AirNZ again...no flight north on a Thursday so I was booked for Friday afternoon.  AirNZ were great, no extra cost. What a way to start the holiday.

UK Road Trip - 2022, here I come!!!

Wow it's been almost 3 years since writing in our Travel blog.  How the world has changed, and I am excited to see how much has changed when traveling around the world.

 

This year I am flying solo to the UK to meet up with my Mum and we are heading off around the UK on a motorhome road trip (see the map above).  Never had a motorhome road trip before, come to think of it, not sure I have ever been in a motorhome.  I grow up having holidays in a caravan in the summers, and I am guessing this will be close, but being in a different location every couple of days will be a little different.

So why a motorhome?  Always wanted to give it a go. I love the fact that I can unpack once and have what you need around you, but you are still on the move.  The price of hiring a motorhome isn't much more than a car, plus it's most of your accommodation, you may need to budget £10-£20 a night for campgrounds, but there are other options out there too.  Plus with COVID still being in communities it means if we need to isolate we can, we can stay to ourselves as much as we want, and get out there and walk around when we want, a lot of flexibility.

My next post will be me leaning NZ going via Singapore to London Heathrow, keep tuned.