Home again

Friday morning - with all the bags and cases (even the fishing rods) packed, we head out to the airport for an early check in and disposal of the luggage at midday. A few breathless moments and repacking of carry on bags and we squeezed under the weight limit. The afternoon was spent on the waterfront in the sunshine, whilst Mattéo caught a further dozen small fish with his bait catcher, which he left to his great friend (and second cousin) Anthony from Paraparaumu who came down with his Mum Ness to say goodbye, as well as Roger, Sally and of course Helen!

Again Air New Zealand offered splendid service for our journey from Wellington to Auckland and on to Hong Kong. We were all fit and well and were able to enjoy a day in this city. It must be said, however that the weather was unusually grey and chilly but we spent about 6 hours on Kowloon and Hong Kong Island (including a great Dim Sum meal) before getting back to the aiport. Alister had had the bright idea of booking a room at the airport hotel for the day (special transit deal) and we all rested/slept from 1500 to 2100.

A short visit to the Duty Free shops in Hong Kong, and we were returned to the care of Lufthansa for our final leg : 13 hours to Munich direct. Again Mattéo and Juliette were absolutely adorable throughout the whole 46 hour journey from Wellington to Munich. The photo of the two of them shown below was taken just before landing at Munich.

Gordon really helped us by getting to the airport by 0530 with his VW multivan and kindly got us and all our baggage home in no time at all and even brought along a brunch "starter kit" of milk, eggs, bread, cheese etc. We were very touched and amused to see a card and a bag of Kiwi fruit with a Bavarian ribbon from some of our neighbours hanging on our front door as we arrived.

Similarly to our departure all those weeks ago, we went for a very long and great fun swim at the local Michaelibad swimming pool under a perfect blue sky (still a bit cold though 1°C). Now the confusing and daunting task of unpacking and restarting life in Germany lies before us.

There will be a final blog posting soon (when the jet lag has subsided). Anyway, we are very pleased to be home.