Tuesday 9 June 2026
Day one of our 2 week trip to Europe (which includes Craig’s wedding) began today. It’s a particularly long day as we left both New Zealand and Canada on the same day!
We travelled to Auckland on Te Huia, which was free for us oldies as we got the 2pm trip which is off peak.
The train connects seamlessly with the bus to Auckland airport and we were in the Koru Club in no time. Having arrived early for the 8pm flight there were no queues anywhere.
The AirNZ flight was pretty good also. We had adjoining seats by the window with no one to climb over (only 2 seats on the side in premium economy) and the food was excellent. Loved the fish.
We got to Vancouver with some sleep and having watched 2 movies.
The inflight wifi is free and worked well and we could do the Canada arrival card on line on the plane. However not so straightforward when transiting. The Canada people wanted to see our forward and past boarding passes to ensure we’d gone through security. We had left our AKL to Vancouver boarding passes on the plan and they didn’t show up on our AirNZ app. We don’t normally get a printed pass but we definitely will from now on. They had to open security especially to process us.
We have about 6 hours in Vancouver and then transfer to Air Canada. We have access to a lounge with our Priority Pass cards that come with our Mastercards. That enables us to charge devices and get food and drink, not that we are hungry. The Pepsi and ice is going down well though.
Have bought some new ‘Europe Summer Appropriate’ sunglasses. Hopefully I’ll get to wear them soon. Apparently it’s a high of 15C and raining in London when we arrive tomorrow afternoon. It’s warmer in Hamilton and sunny!!
Well Air Canada could get better at communicating! Evidently the pilot had a last minute family emergency and they had to get a replacement pilot so we all waited at the gates for an hour not knowing what was going on. Then 2 pilots wandered up, coffees in hand and boarded to muted applause. We then waited another half hour on the plane and eventually were told that the pilot had now arrived so we could go.
The food on Air Canada is also a bit hit and miss. We were again in Premium Economy and it was interesting to compare with AirNZ. The main courses on both airlines were delicious but we got a proper entree on AirNZ as well as choices of breads and crackers and cheese to follow icecream. On Air Canada we got lettuce and vinaigrette and a bread roll + a piece of chocolate brownie (as well as the chicken or beef mains which were delicious).
There was about an hour of turbulence that interrupted the dinner service for most cabins but we already had our food thank goodness.
Arrival at Heathrow was unbelievably quick and seamless. Terminal 2 is the newest evidently. Not much to look at and very functional but also very quick. Everything was automated and it was less than 20 minutes between landing and getting outside.
In Pauline’s amazingly wonderful and organised way there was a driver there to collect us and we were back at Chiddingfold with Craig and JenY in no time.
The wedding adventure begins.