Christmas done, bags packed, and we were suddenly back at Heathrow.

Our flight with Malaysian Airlines was to take us to Auckland in New Zealand via Kuala Lumpur. The first flight of 12 hrs started with confusion and sadness. A guy in the middle set of seats had a lot of attention from ground staff and, eventually, he and his wife were escorted off the plane. It seems that he had some kind of eye infection, and the captain was unhappy to accept him on the flight – we are guessing that it was in case his condition worsened mid-flight.

The rest of the flight was uneventful. Drinks and food, especially the signature dish of chicken/beef satay, were very good, crew very attentive but the IFE not so good. Our late departure meant a late arrival at KL, which was already tight for our layover time of 1.5 hours for the connecting flight. The crew assured us ‘it’ll be fine’ so, as we scurried first off the plane, (joys of being in Business), we power walked to gate 17 to catch our flight to Auckland. We only had about 30 minutes to get to the gate before it closed. Then another passenger said he had received a text that our onward flight was delayed – phew!

Unfortunately, the second flight of 10hrs was delayed for over 2hrs as we waited for other passengers coming in on connecting flights. This meant that by the time we got to New Zealand and passed through immigration, got bags and a taxi to our apartment we eventually got to our bed at 3am – 32hrs after we got out of our bed in our Heathrow hotel.

We both felt remarkably good considering that neither of us slept a lot on the flights. Malaysian Airlines, overall, came up as ‘slightly better than average’ compared with others like Air India, BA and Iberia.

The apartment we had booked was very good, very close to everything in the CBD (Central Business District) and the perfect place to acclimatise to a 13hr time difference to the UK and to work out where was best to enjoy the New Year fireworks.

Hello 2025

Auckland was the first major city in the world to see in 2025 and the evening did not disappoint with a spectacular show from the top of Auckland Sky Tower with the display beamed all over the world’s news channels. Maybe not as famous as Sydney but we were ‘first’, 2hrs before!

Zip a dee do dah

Cheryl had discovered that on a popular nearby island there was a zip lining facility. 3 long dual zip lines meant we could fly over ancient treetops, vineyards and surrounding countryside side by side. Why wouldn’t we? First, we boarded a ferry to the island where we were picked up by the organisers. We had a wonderful afternoon of zipping and laughing with our fellow zippers. Whilst not as exciting as some of the zips we have done, (Philippines, Mexico, India,) we have added another country, New Zealand, where we have ‘zipped’.

Sky High

The Sky Tower in Auckland is 328m high and has a observation deck at 186m above the city where on a clear day you can see 53 extinct volcanoes and of course spectacular panoramic views of the city and harbour below. It also has a rotating restaurant on the floor above and a cocktail bar on the floor below at 182m. There was a charge of $45 to access the viewing platform, then Cheryl remembered our time in Chicago and the Hancock Tower where you could use the cocktail bar without an admission charge and discovered it was the same here. We booked in for our last night in Auckland and it was more than fine as we got a window table to watch the sunset in style enjoying cocktails and nibbles as the sun slowly sank below the horizon.

Now, you may be asking yourself why did we come all the way to New Zealand? You are going to have to be patient and wait for the next blog post.
Ka Kite Ano