The Plane ride - 14/1/06

Saturday morning started with a lot of excitement. The boys were itching to get to Auckland & they couldn't get there fast enough. Most of the morning was spent answering the question "when.... ?" The first question was "When is nana going to get here?" Nana had kindly volunteered to take us to the airport. We had arranged for her to come about 9 o'clockish to pick us all up. The first question was asked at 7:30. It was then asked about every 1/4 of an hour from that time on. Nana arrived early & took us to the airport.

Even that didn't stop the when question because the next one was "When are we getting on the plane?" We said goodbye to nana & went up the escalator & into the Qantas lounge. Our flight was called & we were on the plane. We were seated right near the front in seats 2 A B C D. I was the lucky person who got to sit in 2D, so I was able to sit back relax & watch Kath & Kim for the inflight entertainment. I have no idea if Scott got asked "When will we get to Auckland?" but my guess is that he did. We had a great flight & the boys got to see Mt Tarankai from their window. James picked out immediately that it was a volcano & thought he was about to come in to land at Auckland. Not too long after we did get to land in Auckland but I had the most sore right ear with the apin going all the way down into my neck. The pain was excruiating. The heat as we stepped out the door of the plane was amazing, I was quite surprised & it is very reminiscient of getting off the plane in Brisbane.

We picked up our luggage & then had to get the rental car. Of course while we were waiting on Scott to fill out the paper work the inevitable question of "When will we see Robin & Phyllis?" popped up. So that question was repeated quite often as Scott & I negotiated our way to the Unicorn Motel on Shelly Beach Road. It wasn't too hard to find & actually the traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Robin, Phyllis, Erin, Neil & Danja had already been staying at the motel for a few days so they had some lunch all prepared for us which was fantastic as we didn't bring any with us. The boys went & talked to Phyllis & Robin while Scott & I got our motel room & started to move the bags into it.

I have to say that the motel room wasn't great. It was a downstairs room & very dark, 2/3 of the lights in the main room didn't go & there was a huge wet spot in the middle of the floor. The room, because it had been closed up, was horribly musty & very hot but at least it was somewhere to sleep in the meantime.

We organised ourselves a bit & then went upstairs to talk to Robin & Phyllis & have our lunch. We organised for everyone to meet up at Scott's grandfathers place for dinner, before which we would go out & see one of Scott's uncles who lives on the North Shore.