After 5 flights through 4 time zones, I have finally arrived at my final destination - The Chatham Islands. The Chathams are 45 mins ahead of mainland New Zealand time, so 13 hrs 45 mins ahead of the UK and were the first place to see sunlight in the millenium! This post is just about my travel here, with another post later on.
The first flight I got (from Heathrow to Vancouver) was with Air Canada, which is the first time I've been on that airline and even gone to that country. On the whole they were reasonably good, with some food being amazing and the rest being standard, aeroplane quality. :P The in-flight entertainment was pretty up-to-date film and music wise. The 9 hour flight gave me the chance to to watch 2 of the films I meant to go and see at the cinema. I watched Tin Tin, Immortals and (the classic) Bugs Life - flashback from childhood. I also watched 3 episodes of The Big Bang Theory, which never fails to entertain. To top off a reasonable long haul flight, it was the pilot's last flight after over 30 years of service which was commemorated by 2 fire engines, firing water at us on arrival in to Vancouver.
When I went through to the international destination's passport control I was on my own, with no one else there. The man at the desk was so rude and I would have said something sarcastic, if only he weren't the man deciding if I could enter the country and continue on my travels. :P The people at the flight gate were equally rude, so all-in-all, my Vancouver airport experience was terrible. However, they did have an awesome fish tank. Anyways, onwards and upwards (pun intended).
The second of my flights was to Auckland (14 hours) was a lot less interesting. All I did was watch "In Time", ate and tried to sleep. The flight however was late arriving into New Zealand, causing my transfer to be a bit rushed, to say the least. The queues for passport control and baggage X-ray were taking ages and I then had to run 10 minutes to the domestic terminal. I got to the gate in time and the flight down to Wellington only took an hour. I spent the entire time answering trivial questions, set by Air NZ, with guy sat next to me.
There was a bit of drama once I arrived at Wellington, as I found out the plane I intended to catch to the Chathams was back at Auckland airport (FFS)! So, I chilled out, charging my phone when there was a tannoy announcement for me to go back to check-in. A flight back to Auckland was paid for me on behalf of Air Chathams, but I had to pay 45 NZ$ in excess baggage as the airlines I used before had different allowances. I then heard this flight was calling for final boarding, so off I ran again, through security and onto my fourth flight.
On arrival at Auckland, I checked my bag in again for my final flight. The flight to the Chatham Islands, on Air Chathams is on a dinky plane which meant we didn't even need a gate to board it. The crew were laid back to say the least, even letting a German chap in to the cock-pit for the entire flight. :P Anyway, I arrived at the hospital accommodation on the Chathams at 20:30 Chathams time and went straight to bed.
Hopefully the next post (coming soon) will have pictures! Thanks for reading :)
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