Heading Home

We have arrived in Brisbane.

We left our hotel in London at 6am on Tuesday morning for what turned out to be a very lengthy journey.

• Firstly we traveled by underground train out to Heathrow Airport, Terminal 4.  We each had a big suitcase and smaller "carry-on" suitcase to get on and off the train and made our way to the Etihad Airlines check in.
• Our first flight was on an Airbus A380 (for the children reading this, the A380 is the biggest general passenger aircraft in the world and has two levels of seating).  We`were on the lower level but not far from the front.  Our flight was over 6 hours long and we arrived at the big Abu Dhabi airport at about 8pm local time.
• Changing planes was relatively easy as the big suitcases were looked after by the airline.  We then flew on a Boeing 787, and older plane, for 13 hours to Brisbane, arriving here at nearly 6pm last night.  This was a very long flight and we were very glad to get to the end.  Mrs McLeay's sister and husband, Kathy and Kevin Drew, were waiting there to meet us and we are staying with them for a few days.
• This morning, I went and visited Cleveland State School and interviewed the principal.  It is a school of around 700 students and I really appreciated the time I had there.  Tomorrow morning I am visiting another school nearby.  This is the last week of term for Queensland and so I have had to get these school visits done immediately, even if I am a little jet-lagged (which is when your body has to adjust to a different time zone.  Last night we went to bed here in Brisbane at about the same time as we were getting up in the morning in London a few days ago!)
• We will be travelling up to Noosa next week to see our daughter, Dena, before flying home to Auckland and Kerikeri.

This will be my last blogg entry.  I hope those who have been reading it have enjoyed the photos and knowing how things have gone for us.  I have appreciated the many comments and feedback.  There is a great more deal to share at appropriate times than what is contained on these pages, but that can wait for another day.

Good-bye for now

K. McLeay