Sunday April 28 – Auckland - Singapore - Heathrow

April 28, 2019

Sunday April 28 – Auckland - Singapore - Heathrow – Boston


Auckland airport and goodbyes to Aidan and Ella.

After 48 hours in UK thought it was time to write my first blog before I fall asleep. Managing really well but struggling to keep our eyes open once evening comes along.
Left Auckland at 2pm on Anzac Day and had an uneventful flight to Singapore, and very pleased to get to the hotel for a shower and sleep before heading off again at 9am Friday morning on the 13 hour 40 flight to London. It was another good flight and it was only an hour after landing that we were outside getting a taxi to the hotel at the airport. In previous years we have continued on up to Steve and Kathy’s at Boston, which is a three hour drive and would arrive early evening feeling pretty shattered. Decided to overnight at the airport this year where we had a meal and were in bed asleep by 8pm! Woke feeling so good and arrived at Boston late morning rearing to go.

Good to catch up again with Steve and Kathy and hear all their news. It feels like we have arrived home. The weather wasn’t very good, with gale force winds and cold temperatures, but the fire was really welcoming.

Steve took us up to the storage yard to pick up Ruakiwi, she looked great after a rather mild English winter. The two containers we had left in the van with a material that absorbs any moisture worked a treat, they were both almost full of water and there was no smell of dampness.

Drove her home and then started the job of unpacking, but by 5 oclock had to call it quits as the brain was in go slow, and once again we were in bed soon after 8 oclock. Woke bright as a button and spent this morning sorting out in the van. Had a slight hiccup when we turned the water pump on and had some water in places it shouldn’t have been….Ian was not impressed. Had to pull out the kitchen cupboard to find that the hose fitting that Matt had fixed last year had gone again, probably with not being used for months. Ian will pick up a new fitting tomorrow which should do the job. Grateful that it happened here and not once we were on the road.

Steve and Kathy had booked in for a late Sunday lunch at The Kings Head pub in Navenby, a quintessential English country village. Loved the hours’ drive through the countryside which is looking so beautiful in all its spring freshness with fields of bright yellow rapeseed and dark green oats dotted with old trees showing their new growth. Had a great meal in the centuries old pub complete with beamed ceilings. Steve took us home via the country roads that wound through the fields passing small villages and old churches and everywhere the bright yellow rapeseed fields. Just a perfect way to spend the Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon we are booked to get an MOT for Ruakiwi, hopefully she passes with no hiccups.