Chapter 2 - The Flight

We boarded the Virgin flight an took our seats in Business Class for the short journey to Melbourne, was most enjoyable as they served Fat Yaks on the flight and a nice array of condiments, as well as supplying us with iPads to watch the Simpsons!! Robbie sat next to me and Erik next to Flo.

We landed in Melbourne and went to the Air New Zealand lounge for a couple of hours, tried some interesting Kiwi beer, was ok, but was not inspiring...... We were finally called to our Etihad flight and took our seats in Business Class - these were really great, they we like little private cubicles with a large TV and seats that became totally flat!

Food was brilliant and on call, beverages ok, selection of beer was disappointing, but they made good latte's! I had a good selection of food including a butter chicken pie, and a BBQ pulled pork burger. They boys managed to get cereal, which kept them happy! We all go some sleep on the flight as well, as we were all pretty exhausted from the previous few days. I also go addicted to the Walking Dead series.

After about 14 hours and nearly throttling Erik a few times for trying to go walkabout around the plane we landed in Abu Dhabi. The heat and humidity were immediately obvious as soon as we got off the plane!

We had to traverse yet another security station, and was nearly crushed in the process as people were jammed into a corridor, and more were funnelled into the corridor via escalator, without any

mechanism to stop the flow of people, got a little scary..... Thankfully our business class tickets allowed us to jump the queue and we got through pretty quick. We navigated the duty free section, without Erik knocking over anything valuable, and made it to our next gate where the plane was waiting.

We did it tough again in Etihad Business Class, had our own little booths again with seats that converted into flat beds! Great food and beverages! :-) More Walking Dead!! Erik was bearable, but still wanted to go for a wander, and was a complete grot in his seat. Can't believe the mess he made!!

After a 9 hour flight we landed a Heathrow airport, and thanks again to Business Class we were permitted to use the express immigration lanes, which really decreased our waiting time. We collected our luggage, had to submit a damage claim, as the pram was missing a

wheel and made it out to our waiting driver.