Saga Louts New Zealand Tour

Two years in the planning and five weeks execution. The travels of Dave & Coleen West with Chris & Pat Moy.

A chance remark over a meal in 2006 started us on this adventure. Coleen and Pat would be reaching the golden oldies 60th birthday and we wanted to do something special....... "lets go to New Zealand". "Good idea" and that was it. Planning the holiday over the next two years was part of the fun. Every hotel, B&B, events, places to see were researched on the internet with animated route maps for each day. The Taoist saying - "The journey is the reward." was hopefully going to be worth it all.

The planning meetings consumed copious bottles of wine, beer and food. Every mouthful was worth it to have such a fantastic holiday. Four friends take 5 weeks out of their working lives to travel together - would it be a disaster or their greatest holiday. The saying that you only know someone when you have lived with them would be a test of our friendship.

Finally December 2008 was upon us and like all preparation, there are last minute problems. How do we fit 30 kilos of luggage into a 20 kilo allowance? (you put 10 kilos in your hand luggage). "How many pairs of shoes and what about Alka Seltzers....?" "It's New Zealand, they speak English and drive on the left, so they must be civilised and probably have chemists shops that sell stuff like we have at home. "


London – Bangkok – Auckland (12th December – 14th December 2008)
Bags packed, Chris picks us up at 1.45 and drops us at Basingstoke bus station, while he fetches Pat and daughter Marissa, who will take the car back. Basingstoke bus station would have been an ideal setting for a Len Deighton cold war thriller: damp, chilly, miserable - wretched people going about their daily lives huddled against the freshening wind and steady drizzle as we await our leap for freedom to the summer that awaits us. Coleen wants a coffee (nothing new there then) so we go to Subway. I have a Coke.

Meet Pat and Chris back at the National Express pickup. Two coaches arrive, but not ours. The Heathrow coach is late, but then we are 5 hours early, so it helps break up the time, spotting buses that are going to someone else's destination – standing in the cold talking about the holiday. At last our bus arrives and we all pile on. Coach is jammed full. It’s peeing with rain, so we sleep most of the way to Heathrow.

Terminal 3
Terminal 3 (haven’t been there since 1980’s and it hasn’t changed). Dirty, queues everywhere, aimless immigrant cleaners pushing brooms and cleaning machines around the place, moving the dirt from one end to the other. The next shift merely moves the dirt back down the other end, keeping them all busy and in work for ever. No chance of checking in as we are early. Stand around like all the other early arrivals in this rats nest of a terminal. Finally get to check in. Pretty easy and it’s away through customs to get fuelled up.
7.30 pm and we eat in a diner type theme pub. Various calls to the girls to say goodbye and its off to the plane.

Bangkok Leg
Thai air, looking forward to it - the mile high myths. When we board it is slightly disappointing. We are all together in the middle near the back. Boeing 747 is an older, tired model. No seat back consoles here, only clunky old drop down TVs showing repeat TV programmes and a couple of films aimed at 10 year olds. Read, drink, listen to music, drink, eat, chat, sleep, eat again, drink, and go to the toilet about 10 times, too much drink. Women have ant- DVT stockings and do lots of walking. Men think walking to the toilet is sufficient. Who has the elephantitis legs at Bangkok? Not me.

Bangkok International Suvarnabhumi Airport

Arrive Bangkok. Impressive new airport. The riots were over a couple of weeks ago and peace prevails. We have a 4 hour stopover, so go to a bar on the checkout level and have a few more drinks. Girls drink cocktails, we have beer. Pat buys some squid chips. They look like fishy pork scratching and taste like seagull sh*te – Hopefully, they won't sell these in NZ).

Drink for three hours then wander off to the Auckland leg of the journey. One small point to remember is that Bangkok airport is huge and it takes about half an hour to get to the departure lounge. As it is through a huge shopping mall style area it does not feel too long. We are one of the last to get there and most people have boarded the plane.

Auckland Leg
We are half way towards the back with two pairs of window seats. Flight is packed full and to my right is a young Asian guy who is going back to Auckland then on the Wellington to start a new job. He is pretty laid back and the trip as a whole is far better than the first leg. The stewardesses are all like little dolls - little and tough looking Asian barbies (no wonder Ken always has a smile on his face). Food is ok and seat back entertainment is good. I watch Clone Wars (twice) and play Blackjack before sleeping and eating two meals. Indian software for one of the games hung my console and re-booted Linux. Now I know why we don't emply Indian software houses to do our web projects if this is the quality of the software.

Auckland
Arrived Auckland Airport. Clean, modern and airy – like an African airport only it works and is clean. Long queues at immigration. Takes 40 minutes to clear, but everyone seems to be friendly. They are hot on people bringing in any food or substances that could give them problems in their agricultural economy or affect their ecological system.

Baggage hall – Pat is stopped by a friendly but firm lady customs officer whose sniffer dog has spotted something in Pat's bags. An inspection reveals that it could be the Squid Chips (let’s hope they get confiscated as they are devil's food on a par with brocolli). Those pass muster and it’s the normal crisps that fails, unfortunately. We collect our bags and queue to go through the red channel. Coleen shows her doctors letter to the officer that points out she is bringing in Gluten Free food that has been prescribed because she has Coeliacs Disease: Gluten intolerant. He understands and waves us through – this is the first instance of New Zealanders being very aware of Coeliacs disease, in restaurants, shops and hotels).

Out into the open air. It’s warm with a light breeze. Like being on holiday. There’s a relaxed colonial feel to the place as we sort out a shuttle bus to our hotel. Shuttle buses are 10 seater min-buses with a trailer for the baggage. Ours is driven by an Indian guy (as are all the others). It’s like being in Reading or Slough only it’s sunny.

The trip into Auckland is pleasant and surprisingly relaxing after being cooped up in planes for 27 hours. Arrive “downtown” at the hotel which is dwarfed by the omni-present Skytower at 1000 feet high. The taxi trip costs us $55 (less than £20) per couple including the tip which is pretty cheap. Chris asks the driver to recommend a restaurant and not unsurprisingly he recommends an Indian called Razis, which is near the hotel (Razi is probably his cousin).

Check in – staff not overfriendly. It’s a big, tourist style hotel with a very public lobby serving the Skytower, hotel, public restaurant/bar and escalator to the casino and probably does bookings for the local catholic church on Sundays or bingo on Tuesday afternoon.

Up to the rooms and it’s not looking good. We are on an inwards facing room on the fourth floor, looking across the hotel reception roof at other guest rooms. Room is well equipped, flat screen, ironing board etc. and bathrooms are smart. There is an outside pool on the sixth floor, but we don't bother as it is 70 F but overcast and its late afternoon. Not my idea of a first world four/five star hotel, but its home for a few days and eventually I get to like it.

We meet in the hotel bar, start with a drink to keep us in training as we will get plenty of practice over the next month. Eventually we explore the city and most importantly getting wine for our Indian meal (its BYO). Our drinks round costs $NZ30 which is reasonable for a downtown hotel bar. Staff are very friendly which is par for the course in NZ.

Hunger drives us to our recommended restaurant. Ravis is excellent and to be recommended. The service is first class and the curries are bill. Well done the taxi driver. Pat and Chris went up to bed after the meal, so we walked around and had a coffee in Starbucks across the road from the hotel. I think I nodded off between slurps of coffee. Went to bed at 10 p.m. (not sure what time this equates to in the UK yet and don't care).