On Friday 14th November Mummy and Daddy woke up very early (at 0500) and got us ready to leave on our big adventure!

Cambridge station.

At 0615 a taxi arrived to take us to the station to catch our train to London Kings Cross. We were supposed to have a very easy trip on the Underground across to Paddington, but some of the staff were on strike, so poor Mummy and Daddy had to take all the luggage, plus me in my pushchair, up and down escalators and flights of stairs and take two different trains to get there. Thankfully we met lots of lovely people who helped them carry me up and down stairs - phew! We finally reached Paddington and collapsed on the Heathrow Express. Mummy and Daddy thought I would go back to sleep during this journey as we got up so early, but I was far too excited! There were lots of new things to look at and new noises to listen to, and new people to tell me how cute I am!

Once we got to the airport we checked in to the flight, and I got to use my new passport for the very first time! We went straight through security and I was playing on the floor in the departures lounge when they started evacuating the check-in zone we had just been in! It was all very exciting and we didn't know if they were going to evacuate us next, but we were very glad that we'd checked in early!! About 20 minutes later there was a stand-down on the evacuation and everyone came back in, but we never did find out what caused it.

On the plane.

After that we got on the plane to Los Angeles. The flight took 10hrs 18mins, and none of us enjoyed it very much :-( . It was daytime, and I was still too excited to sleep very much, and my ears hurt so I cried quite alot for the first half of the journey. Poor Mummy and Daddy! The cot they gave me was really narrow and uncomfortable, so I found it difficult to sleep well. But we got there eventually, and then took over an hour to get through US immigration and customs. We were all tired and cranky and those immigration people just didn't understand that when I need my nappy changed I need it changed now!!

Buz.

Santa Monica.

Walt Disney Hall.

Well, we were met by Buz - a friend of Daddy's who loves opera and has a lovely house in LA. He looked after us very well for the 3 days we were with him. He showed us all around the city, we drove along Sunset Boulevard, through Beverley Hills, and Hollywood (we even saw the Hollywood sign in the hills!). We also saw Downtown LA, and the new Walt Disney Concert Hall - it's a really impressive building!

Asleep on Air NZ.

On Sunday evening Buz took us to the airport so we could catch our flight to New Zealand. This time I had a lovely wide comfortable cot and I fell asleep almost straight away. In fact I slept for most of the 12 hour journey, but I was awake to see a spectacular sunrise over the Pacific Ocean. We had crossed the dateline by that time though, so it was Tuesday morning instead of Monday now.

Sunrise.

I watched with rapt attention as North Island NZ came into view - it's so beautiful and I'm so excited that I'm going to spend 1/7 of my life so far here!

The plane touched down at 0650 on Tuesday 18th November to a gorgeous sunny morning in Auckland International Airport. I wondered, am I now the furthest travelled four-month-old in Cambridge?