We were forty minutes late leaving Auckland for San Francisco but the pilots must have put the hammer down, or perhaps when we were all asleep we went through a time warp, because we arrived exactly on time. It was not too bad a flight, we both slept quite well as far as cattle class on a 100% full Air NZ allows.  I think the time of day made all the difference. A delayed 8.25pm lift off, time to settle in then have a meal, we just naturally felt like sleep.

We were seated on the RH side of the aircraft, me on the aisle, Barbara in the middle, and a young woman in her late teens at the window. She was very polite and well spoken and at first we thought she was English but it turned out she was Lucinda from Australia and was a diver. She wore old sneakers, black track pants, a baggy formless top and had her hair tied up. But for all that she was obviously very good looking. About half an hour before landing in San Francisco she went to the bathroom with a bag and re-emerged with designer sandals, a denim mini skirt, backless sheer white top, tanned and toned, all made up and her hair let down. A  butterfly had emerged from the chrysalis. We last saw her at baggage claim where she fluttered off to have fun in the California sun.

Getting through border control, baggage claim, customs, , rechecking baggage, back through security all took a good hour and a half so our four hour stop over passed quite quickly. Our travel agent had told us our bags would be checked right through from Auckland to Heathrow but this is not the case. Everyone entering the United States has to collect their baggage and re-check it even if only transiting for a few hours.

The flight from San Fran to Heathrow left right on time, was 100% full and arrived in London about half an hour ahead of schedule. All to no avail as our gate was still occupied by a departing aircraft and so we waited on the tarmac for half an hour while it was loaded and towed away. This time our body clocks were totally out of sync thinking it was afternoon and early evening and so we didn’t sleep a wink. Never mind there were some good movies to watch.

Terminal 3 at Heathrow was almost deserted and it took only ten minutes from leaving the aircraft, going through border control, collecting baggage, clearing customs, and heading for the Elizabeth Line tube train to Paddington. Today is a Bank Holiday in the UK so the tube was very busy and the streets around Paddington, Kensington were packed with people. We think there was some sort of carnival in nearby Notting Hill and lots of people had dressed up in outrageous costumes for the event. Everyone was in very good spirits and there was a large police presence as well.

We were at our hotel by about 1.30pm but were feeling pretty zonked so got a few groceries, went for a walk in Hyde Park before crashing. Tomorrow our task is to get rid of our old pound notes.