First, our flight from Christchurch to Auckland was delayed by 20 minutes. Fortunately we had plenty of time to get the next flight, because it too was delayed by over an hour! They had to spray the plane for some reason and it was late getting back to the gate we had to leave from. The gate was away in the back of the airport and it took minutes to walk there. Finally boarded about 11pm and got away. They did make up some time in the air but we were still about half an hour late getting into Los Angeles.
Even though we were doing a direct transit back onto the same plane, we still had to go through immigration at the airport. So they have this wonderful electronic system for immigration then you still have to go to a person to get your passport stamped and fingerprints taken again (for Roger). After spending nearly an hour in lines, some of the transit passengers started to get anxious that the onward leg of the journey would be delayed even more because of the length of the queues for immigration, the AirNZ staff decided to create a special line just for the flight. That being done, we still had to walk miles around the airport to get back to the departure gate. Managed to find a duty free shop, but they didn’t even take Apple Pay! Rather behind the times...
Arrived at Heathrow around 12.30pm only 45 minutes later than expected so made good time. Luggage arrived too which was even better!
Immigration was a breeze compared to LA and customs was a walk through with no officers to be seen.
We got a shuttle to the car company and it took ages for the man to process the car - he had trouble with the credit card and had to start all over again. Finally, we got on the road by 3 pm and found our way to the M25,which lived up to its name as the biggest car park in the world. Lots of stops and very slow at times. Thank goodness we were able to get off and use the M26 and M20 towards Canterbury and arrived in Birchington just after 5pm, which is just about when the iPad app said we would get here.
Carol and David had left us food for a meal and a well stocked fridge so we have been very spoilt. Bed early and hopefully a good night’s sleep!
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