43,678 kilometers, 24 cities, 10 countries and 60 days later and we are back in Auckland. Had a good flight with Air NZ and arrived in Auckland a bit ahead of time at 0510 after a 13½ hour flight. We were not the first flight to arrive as others were arriving from London, Los Angeles, Beijing and Raratonga. It only took us 20 minutes to get through immigration and then the problems began with the baggage. We waited 40 minutes before the first bag came off the plane. We had to wait another 20 minutes for ours to appear but others had to wait longer. The only airport we have had to wait this long for bags was at Kuala Lumpur. Many people around us were annoyed as they were going to miss their internal connecting flights. Not the greatest beginning for many of these tourists – hopefully everything could only get better for them during their stay here.

Apart from the long wait the annoying factor was that the airport authorities did not make any announcements as to the delay – perhaps this is the norm!
 
Our daughter, Shelley, had come to pick us up and we were advising her of the problem. After a discussion with customs going over our declaration of wooden items etc we emerged from the bedlam to be greeted by Shelley, cold weather of 10º C (brrrr) and rain.

That's it folks. We enjoyed the holiday immensely and also putting the blog together. Hope you have enjoyed it.


Cheers

Bruce and Anne