February 2004 we visited the other side of the planet. Approximately 22 hours of flying, shopping over in Los Angeles. The flight was fine by the way. Not as bad as it sounds. We were quite prepared and took:

• 2 litres of water EACH, bought at the airport shop. This helps stop dehydration/economy class syndrome and makes you get up every 2 or 3 hours to go to the toilet - thanks to David J. for this tip!
• eye masks (so you can sleep with the lights on)
• ear plugs (so you can sleep)
• 4 magazines each and a book

Next time I would also take a handheld video game to give more entertainment options, and maybe a pocket draughts or similar, and a toothbrush and flannel in a convenient very small bag. It is so nice to brush your teeth before landing when you wake up!

The cabin staff come with food and drink only every few hours, but you can get up and go to their area and ask for juice and food/chocolate bars etc. whenever you want.

 

Greenland. The colour of the warm pink sun on the snow covered mountains as we flew over and the sea ice was amazing. You could also see the deep blue colour of the ice.

To avoid jet lag, I recommend:

• sleep as much as you can during the flight, even if it's only 20 minutes at a time
• drink lots during the flight
• when you arrive, shower and get out into the sun and daylight as often as you can
• drink lots of water/juice
• don't go to to sleep/bed before 9pm local time - difficult I know

Doing that you should be OK, but in a slight dream, for 24 hours and totally back to normal in 3 days.

Auckland was our first stopping point. This is the view from our hotel suite. I had accidentally booked a very nice small apartment with living room and kitchen in a new hotel right in the city centre. This is the 328m high Skytower, which we went up during our few days in Auckland. It's a great city, not too big or too busy. The people are all friendly and go out of their way to help. For example when we went down for breakfast 25 minutes after the restaurant had closed, the chef just made us a beautiful fresh tasty breakfast anyway! Judith is standing on glass above a rather large drop in the Skytower.

You can do a bungee jump from the Skytower. We didn't!

Cornwall Park is just outside of Auckland. We had a cup of tea and cake in this this original Colonial style cafe. I don't think they were trying to appear Colonial style, it just was all original and well maintained.
One Tree Hill is also a pop song by U2. It is an Maori site, so called because it usually has just one tree on the top. All of these small hills in the park are sleeping volcanoes. They haven't erupted for some centuries now. New Zealand is a very geologically 'fresh' country!

Karekare is where the film the Piano was filmed. These summer houses were originally built by single men who came to work on the farms in New Zealand.
Ste on Karekare beach. The waves thunder onto the shore continually, making a very deep rumbling noise like a jet engine, and a fine heavy sea mist. Quite spooky and atmospheric!

Bush is everywhere in New Zealand. It just springs up because the land and climate are so fertile.

The next page continues our journey:

New Zealand - 2- Driving from North to South