The Propect of Christmas in Transit.

If anyone has been reading this blog over the last few weeks you will have noticed that we have been trying to save up for a trip back to the UK this Christmas. Well us Brunts have a habit of leaving everything to the last minute and when it comes to planning a trip to the other side of the world, it probably is not a good method to follow.

We have been studying the online cost of flights for a family of four online and trying to face the fact that this trip was going to be bloody expensive no matter what we did. Over the last few days in particular we have seen the flights begin to creep up, in one case by just under a thousand dollars overnight!

This prompted us to make the final decision and we have booked flights for the four of us leaving Christmas day, in the early hours of the morning. So we will be spending about 6 hours of the festive morning in Sydney airport. Not really ideal, but when the flights are two thousand dollars cheaper when you travel on the 25th its probably worth it. I have told the girls we will probably see Santa flying on his way home as we fly over the pacific.

We have not been back to the UK since we moved over here almost four years ago, so this trip is really overdue. However when talking to other expats, this amount of time, without a trip back, is not unusual. The cost is simply too prohibitive. For the cost of transporting us all the way back for four weeks, we could be replacing our extremely clapped out and tatty people carrier for a model at least 8 year younger and with far fewer bumps and scrapes. Probably without the many ice cream stains and bits of unidentified vegetation spread over the back seat as well.

Having said that we are missing family and the girls do not have any memories of living in the UK. The youngest left the UK when she was 6 months old and the oldest was only 3. It is about time they found out a bit about where they are from and got to meet their Aunts and Uncles, Great Grandads, Nan and Grandads and all the other many relatives we are lucky enough to have. I think that is probably worth more than the prospect of having a car that is only 8 years old as opposed to 13.

So I am beginning to get excited about the whole trip now that I have got over the shock of having to pay for it! I am looking forward to driving along the M25 again, showing the kids the castles in Sussex and the mountains in Wales. Taking them to London to see the museums, the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye. Most of all though I am looking forward to seeing my friends and family.

But next time they all have to come to NZ instead!

The very very long journey continued..... How to survive on a plane with toddlers.

The first leg of our journey was from Heathrow to Los Angeles which would take 11 hours. Our flight left Heathrow at 3.35pm London time so we were going to fly through the night. Our hope was that the girls would fall asleep - this was not to be.

To be honest this part of the flight was not that bad as the whole thing was a novelty and the girls loved the TV screens and as we boarded they were handed an activity set, colouring book, stickers and pens (this kept them amused for about 10 minutes). The food delivered a few hours after we took off was great and the kids were very impressed with all the little packets and individual trays. All they ate mind you was the cakes and roll and butter but this kept them happy enough.

Trips to the loo were also greeted with great excitement by the girls as this involved walking past everyone else (who tended to say hello to them or were busy snoring) and the great big swishing noise as the loo flushed was apparently very amusing.



People in general were very patient with the children and luckily we didn't have any major tantrums or yelling. However dd2 was not very good at remaining quiet when everyone was trying to sleep and the only way we could get her to stay still was to plug her into the TV.

There were plenty of other people with children on the flight - some with very young babies and the airline had obviously grouped us together near the bulk head of the plane. The families developed a kind of camaraderie between us and we found ourselves chatting to one another and helping each other out with awkward kids. It was nice and made you feel less worried if your child decided to have a tantrum or scream continually for 45 minutes at a time. Or as this video illustrates your daughter decides to perform a duet with Fimble when everyone is trying to sleep.



We took pyjamas for the girls and got them changed and washed in the loo on the plane about 5 hours into the flight. This helped them get to sleep as they felt fresher and more comfortable. The chairs are not an ideal place for anyone to sleep but the blanket and cushion helped. I think sheer exhaustion got the youngest to sleep in the end.


I have never been to America so I was rather excited about stopping off in Los Angeles even if it was only for a couple of hours. In the end the only bit you actually see is the security area where they stamp your passports and ask you why you are passing through the US and a room where you sit and drink coffee until your plane is ready for re boarding.

This was a very difficult part of the journey as the girls had to be woken up and then you have to carry all your hand luggage through US customs and security. We had a lot of on board luggage and two very tired girls - it was not pleasant. I think the airport staff took pity on us when DD1 had a melt down whilst waiting in the queue to go through customs. We were immediately taken to the front. I guess having a tantruming 4 year old can come in useful occasionally.

It was quite amusing watching all the other passengers stretch and contort themselves before the next leg of journey. One man lay down on his back and stuck his legs up in the air against a wall whilst reading the Financial Times and one lady did some yoga in front of the coffee machine. To be honest all these exercises are probably a very good idea considering the length of the flight.

The second half of the plane ride was somewhat trying. However the kind airline staff had moved us directly in front of the bulk head which meant we had far more leg room and enough space for the girls to play on the floor in front of the seats. We managed to get through most of the toys, books and games we had brought with us in this stretch of the journey. Someone had told me that you needed enough toys to get out a new one every hour and this is true. Its amazing what short attention spans toddlers have.

We slept for quite a large proportion of the second flight and DD2 spent most of this curled up in my lap. This meant that I woke up at one point and found a strange extremely tall man asleep next to me in DD2s seat. My husband said he had asked if he could sit there for a bit as he was a bit cramped in his normal seat and he had then promptly fallen asleep. We left him there until he woke up a few hours later, he apologised profusely and then when back to his own seat.

Our first glimpse of New Zealand was as a line of clouds in the distance and then you could gradually see land underneath. I will never forget landing in Auckland and the tropical smell that hits you as you get off the plane. I thought that they might pump perfume into the airport but it appears to be the natural smell in the air. Its a mix of Herbal Essences shampoo and the sea. The other thing that struck me was the fact that the airport is carpeted. OK this may be an odd thing to notice but I am so used to the vast expanse of tiled Heathrow that arriving in Auckland is like coming into someones carpeted front room or office. Its very homey.

By the time we got to Auckland we were all exhausted so I am afraid that the first thing we had to eat in our new home country was a MacDonalds.

The very very very long journey..........

The total journey time from Brussels to Wellington is 26 hours. It was going to take us a bit longer. All our furniture had been collected on the 24th of Feb and our flight wasn't due to leave until the 25th so we booked ourselves into a Holiday Inn in Brussels for one night. This meant that we had to cross the city in a Taxi loaded down with 3 large suitcases, 3 small suitcases, two backpacks and a pushchair. All the items that we were going to survive on for the next 3 months.

The Holiday Inn was a bit of luxury for us after the stress of the last few days. Packing up all your furniture and tying up all the loose ends before leaving the country had been rather hard work. Thank goodness we had the help of my parents. They are extremely good at cleaning cupboards, scouring cookers and entertaining kids - all at the same time.

I cant say I slept much that night - it was rather difficult saying goodbye to my Mum and Dad and I couldn't help but wonder whether we were doing the right thing tearing the kids away from their grandparents. However a hotel breakfast always cheers me up and the early morning wake up call of a two year old always make you forget any worries.

We caught a flight from Brussels to Heathrow at 10 o'clock and began to worry about what we had let ourselves in for. The 45 minutes flight had seemed endless as DD2 decided that she didn't want to sit in one place and had to be continually swapped between myself and DH.

We arrived in Heathrow about 10.30 and it was still to early to check in so had a coffee and sat and thought about all the things we where going to miss from the UK. Once we had got past the family, our dog and radio 2 it got a bit difficult. As we hadn't lived in the country for the past 16 months we had become a bit detached and no longer felt as British as we used to. It will be interesting to see what we miss after a year in Wellington.

We were flying to Wellington via Los Angeles with Air New Zealand. A good tip when travelling with young children is to check in early. DD2 was not quite 2 when we flew, so to save a bit of money we had not booked her a seat and she was due to sit on one of our laps. Now the kind chap who checked us in managed to get us an extra seat for DD2 at no extra charge as the flight wasn't fully booked. I think this act of kindness probably saved our sanity!

Once checked in we headed towards the security gate. If you have ever tried to go through a security check with two young children and lots of hand luggage you will know that getting through in one piece is a feat of ingenuity. First of all you have to separate all electronic gear and laptops and remove from their bags. Toddlers have to be removed from their buggy and said buggy has to be folded in order to be x-rayed. All your personal jewellery, belts and metal items have to be removed and if security it at a particularly heightened state you have to remove your shoes as well. All this has to be done whilst trying to prevent toddler from climbing onto the conveyor belt or running off into the distance. You will also find you annoy the business suited executives and other passengers as you take twice as long as everyone else to pass through. Gosh it was fun! One particularly difficult bit was extracting Fimble from DD2 as even cuddly toys need to pass through the x-ray machine. DD2 quite enjoyed watching Fimble pass through the machine in the end and by the end of our trip was so used to going through security that she was placing him on the conveyor belt without being asked.

Heathrow departures is very boring if you are 4 or 2 years old (actually its not that exciting for a 33 year old). Once you have done Hamleys and Boots for the second time it can get very difficult. My two found the seats made a very good climbing frame so I decided to leave them to it and ignored the disapproving glances from fellow passengers. We thought it best to let them work off some energy now before the long flight.

The first sight of our plane was quite exciting. I thought once we boarded that there was no going back. This thought was rather scary as I knew that we were unlikely to be able to afford to come back and visit for at least the first year. I suddenly felt very attached to my home country.

I have never been on a Trans-Atlantic flight before and was really impressed with the pillows and blankets that they give you. The little TV screens on the back of the seats are also rather good and the girls were very impressed with the choice of kids programmes. We had come armed with an enormous selection of colouring books, sticker books, aqua-draw games, cars, teddies etc.. None of these were touched for the first half of the journey as the girls amused themselves with the TV screens and the trays of food we were given periodically.