Christchurch to Cape town

Monday, October 03, 2016
Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
Today is the start of a trip to South Africa to watch the All-blacks play the South Africans in Durban.Which was organized by All Black Tours a party of 48 .
With the flight leaving CHCH at 06:05 am it meant I had to be at the airport by 03:30 at least to check in. Set the alarm for 1:30 am to allow time to travel the 80 odd km to the airport. The car was booked into Graddick's Car Storage so that used up another 15 Min's.
When the alarm went off I checked the weather outside ,only to find it was foggy which would make driving much slower.No time for a shave and shower, throw everything into to the car ready to move off, the bag of course had been packed the previous day.But hit a hi-cup went to put on my glasses but they were nowhere to be found.. PANIC.could I drive with out them/ not really especially in the foggy conditions after 12 Min's looking for them still nothing. Panic was really setting in. Shifted the drawers nothing decided the next place to look was under the bed got down on my knees and felt around... oh joy they must have slipped onto the floor and got pushed under the bed.Out to the car and finally off to catch the plane, the fog was drive-able and I got passed by a large Truck and Trailer unit not long after leaving home,Right this was my chance I stuck in behind that unit all the way to Rolleston and let him find the way. But this came unstuck at Rolliston when the driver of the truck drove through a red light and I was not game to do that, by the time the light turned green he was gone.Checked into the car storage and they took me to the terminal and dropped me off with time to spare.
I still had not met up with the tour guide who did not meet us until Cape Town.
Checked into Qantas and they checked my baggage through to Capetown but they said I had to pick it up at Johannesburg,but they could not give me a boarding pass for the flight from Johannesburg to Capetown.The flight to Sydney went very well and I had a 4 hour wait there for my connection to Johannesburg but that flight was delayed by an hour.It was supposed to to be an 14 hour flight but the captain must have put his foot down as it only took 12 hours.On this flight the food was very good one meal we had Beef Check which was far better than any meal I had had on a plane before.Sat on the plane with Brian and Leonda who were also going on the tour group, met up with them several times during the tour.
 On this flight there was a family of mum and dad plus 3 children two of the children where OK but the 2 yr old was very hypo active and the parents did not seem to help much because they kept giving him lollies to keep him quiet but of coarse that worked in the opposite direction.
  I could not sleep so it the first of some long flights. Arrived in Johannesburg an hour ahead of scheduled which turned out to be a blessing in the long run.Came off the plane picked up my bag and the next thing there was a little African porter grabbing my bag and showing me the way .Went to get my boarding pass and it would not go through sent to another counter and had the same problem, all this time the porter was sticking by my side which did make it easy as he knew his way around of course, finally I was sent to the British Airways Counter where the lady behind the counter informed me that the ticket was booked but not paid for by the All Black Tour Group !!! a great start to the tour.By this time frustration had set in, so the easy way was to pay the fare and claim it back later.I still had the little porter with me who then took me back to the check in counter where every thing went smoothly.Thought I had better pay the porter and offered him 50 rand ($5.00) which he said was it too much but grabbed it and said thank and went on his way. I Learn't later that some of my fellow travelers paid up to $20.00 as that was all they had. 
I had time for a coffee and a short wait for the flight to Cape Town which was uneventful thank goodness still no sleep.
Finally met at Capetown by some one with connections with All Black Tours and put on a bus to our hotels.By this time I could see other travelers wearing All black Gear so started to feel more relaxed about the trip.Booked into the Cullinan Hotel and had a good nights sleep ready for the next Day 

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