Land of the long white cloud

Up just after 5 and off to the airport. Happily I had less than a dollar left in the Opal card, just judged it right. Sydney airport is another mall with planes attached but didn't seen all that busy. My flight had come from Dubai so most passengers were transiting, a long journey. I'd chosen a good seat and luckily remember I was in the Emirates loyalty programme so got my choice free. And in my favourite plane,  an A380. Wonder if this one test flew over La G, so many did.

3 hours later flying in over S Island with great views of the mountains behind Greymouth. As always took a while to get into NZ: SIM purchase, e-gates that seemed to have a lot of glitches and the biosecurity queue. Meet by M and then a 3 hour journey South to Waimate, including a coffee stop.  Since then I've met grandchildren and the animals, inspected the garden, eaten, drunk and caught up. Now in my 4th time zone since I left home all these weeks ago. Scrambled head!