Such a long journey

You know that phrase 'Its not about the destination, its all about the journey' - in reality the journey sucks.  Whoever designed the fuel tank that could be attached to a giant plane which had enough capacity to fly up to 14 hours without stopping must have been a sadist with no compassion or mercy.  The Singapore to Heathrow 'journey' was very slow and very long - like a very slow thing on the slowest day of the slowest week in the slowest year in history.  We boarded, then waited 2 hours 'due to a technical issue with the fuel recorder' eventually leaving 'now our engineers have cleared us'.  That was 2 hours without inflight entertainment, lights blazing and a couple of rounds of 'fruit juice or water madam?'.  Then we took off and the first hours just dragged by - made even worse by trying to work out what time it was, is it NZ time for me, or Singapore time or should I be thinking in London time.  Nothing made it any less than the full 14 hours - over half a day worth of movies, being offered food and drink, tv episodes, attempts at sleep (all doomed).  Best bit was discovering a tv series called Twentytwelve, a mockumentary about the bureaucracy 'delivering' the 2012 Olympics, very clever, very funny and strangely familiar coming from a local government environment.  Tried the eye mask May gave me  - now understand the term 'blind panic' having woken up from a very light sleep and forgetting I had it on.

Last few hours of the flight didn't exactly fly by but they were at least tinged with anticipation.  And then we landed - 2 hours late and a little apprehensive about getting to Gatwick on time for the Guernsey flight.  Shouldn't have worried, drifted through passport control, onto the baggage area where I found my bag in 2 minutes (All the way from Wellington to Heathrow - now thats a miracle), through the area marked Customs expecting a barrier of some sort  - nope, just a jovial man in a uniform who held a swing door open for me as he chatted away on his walkie talkie and suddenly I was 'there' - I had arrived in the familiar yet foreign land of my ancestors.
The rest was a breeze, follow the sign to the Central Bus Station, took 10 minutes to get there, buy a ticket for the Gatwick Bus 'leaving in 5 minutes', onto the bus and I'm on my way again.  Couldn't believe I was actually traveling on the M25 (motorway) - a route I have read about in so many books, the phrase 'traveling up the M25' is a favorite of mine for some reason and there I was - living the dream.  Have to say I was a bit disappointed - it looked a bit, well a lot like NZ.  I even saw sheep on the side of the road, the cars looked the same as ours, there were fields everywhere, grass, roadworks and a few horses (not ON the motorway, beside it).  The only thing missing was a Tui billboard.  I think I've seen more traffic on the way to Auckland airport.

Then I saw something a bit different - white stuff on the ground, a sprinkling over the grass at first then a little thicker then covering the ground completely - SNOW,( then again last year in the Hutt.....)

A wee bit of snow

Turn left off the M25.....

Got to Gatwick and searched for the 'Fly-Be' counter, row 10 if you're ever looking for it.  Went to Boots and saw Marks and Spencer food outlet - then I knew I was in the UK.  Had a coffee (cappuccino, failed the taste test and it had no chocolate on top - whats with that?) and really knew I was in in the UK.  Eventually got on the plane - this time it was full scale security, armed police swaggering around in black combat uniform, the beeper went off as I went through and I got the full pat down - I never beep in NZ.  Had to take my boots off and they went through the scanner - don't imagine I look like a shoe bomber but It had been a long 28 hours since I left NZ so maybe I looked a little suspect.  Had to run to the departure gate (long story, no gate on ticket, only saw the number 38 on the ticket and went towards that gate, then heard the flight being closed and 'would the last remaining passengers ... and..and Little please come immediately to Gate 1, your plane is about to leave'  arrived in time out of breath only to wait another 15 minutes on the plane because it couldn't take off before its scheduled time of course).  I go half way around the world without incident and manage to almost miss the flight that will actually get me to Guernsey.  It was a quick flight to Guernsey on FlyBe airlines (think JetStar but with fewer frills and smaller planes), less than an hour and made all the more enjoyable by the co-pilot announcing our descent in a very Kiwi accent - I knew I was in safe hands.  And suddenly we broke through the clouds and there was this little island (cue rousing music) .......

The view from the Fly-Be flight

First sight of Guernsey

First Day in Guernsey - just a teaser for the next installment