Flight and First Day

We experienced United's entertainment on our iPads during the first leg of our journey. The movie I really liked was Monkey Kingdom, a Disney Nature film. It had a story line and LOTS of amazing video. It was great entertainment for one who once chased baboons through Kenya's jungles and Frank got to watch what he wanted.

The long Air New Zealand flight had a multi course dinner and breakfast before landing. Definitely not the usual airplane food! We had noise cancelling earphones to watch movies and videos or listen to music. It really did help to block out the plane noises. I didn't think I slept much but the flight seemed shorter this time so maybe I slept more than I thought. We had to get all our bags through customs and then walked them from Auckland International terminal to the Domestic terminal, a supposedly 10 minute walk. It taxed us old people who after rechecking our main bags at the domestic terminal had to carry our carry on bags down stairs to board the Christchurch flight from the runway. Some kind Kiwis helped us carry bags up the boarding steps to the plane. A bumpy Christchurch flight ended with the highlight of the day being greeted by Tara and Al. See slide show of pictures.

The second highlight was photographing birds in their backyard including a New Zealand Fantail! We are trying desperately to stay awake until bedtime to reset our internal clocks to local time.