Friday April 28 – Boston

The rebuild of Steve and Kathy's house is well underway.

After a good night’s sleep in Singapore we were up at 5.30 to get organised and back to the airport for the 9am flight. We had checked our bags straight through and collected our boarding pass in Auckland so it was really quick going through security and into the airport. Singapore Airport is amazing, vast spaces all spotlessly clean. Had some breakfast and a good cup of coffee, and it was back on the plane. The thirteen and a half hour flight ended up being well over 14 hours as we had to circle Heathrow for quite some time before we could finally land.

Knowing how long the queues were last time, we made our way to border control as quick as possible, but the sight of hundreds of people in queues snaking their way to the front was not good. There was nothing to do but join in and people watch to pass the time. Finally, after almost 1 ½ hours we were through, bags had arrived safe and sound and Steve was there to meet us. We had made it!!!

A slow trip from the airport through the evening commuter traffic but finally we were clear of it and after a stop for a coffee we arrived at Boston by 9pm. Kathy had a very welcome chicken casserole ready and Steve poured a wine….it doesn’t get any better than that. We are just so grateful to these two for all they do for us, making travelling in Ruakiwi so simple.

Bed was very welcome, Ian’s cold making him feel pretty grotty and my throat is a bit suspect. Anyway we both had a good sleep and woke to blue skies and sunshine….and 11 degrees.

Had a leisurely morning and Steve took us to see progress on their new house – they had bought a two story 1950’s house which we first saw last year when we arrived, and in November we saw it partly demolished. Now the rebuild is well under way and we could walk through the rooms and visualise what an amazing home it is going to be. 

Steve and Kathy took us to the storage yard to collect Ruakiwi who is looking great and survived the winter really well apart from a little bit of mould in a few places. Steve had organised an appointment at the nearby testing station to have her MOT done which she went through with flying colours. Had great plans to start unpacking our bags into her but it was well after 5, jet lag was catching up and the offer of a glass of wine in front of the fire seemed a much better option. Tomorrow is another day. 

Ian got out of the van and somehow I
ended up still there when it went up on the hoist!