26th April

I arrived at Christchurch Airport a little bit early. 7.30 am. The counters didn’t open until 8 am. Still, it was nice chatting to an elderly English couple who were heading home via Singapore. They had arrived soon after the February earthquake and have since toured the lower South Island.

The flight to Singapore was typically efficient on the part of Singapore Airlines. This was the first trip to India I have had where I had the whole row of seats to myself. Ohhhh, it was rough. I had all that space to stretch out.

Being a day flight, I wasn’t inclined to sleep, so I thought I might catch up on some movies. It’s amazing how many movies you can see on one flight. I think it was five.

The day was starting to get to me around three quarters of the way through the flight. For some reason the air conditioning in the cabin seemed insufficient. I was having a lot of trouble breathing. An hour out from Singapore, I started getting a really awesome headache.

We landed ahead of schedule. (I didn’t know this until Sue emailed me to try to arrange a get together at the airport.) Once in the terminal, I pointed myself in the general direction of where I thought I should be and headed out. I say this because I felt somewhat numb and zombie like leaving the plane. Fortunately, you can’t get to lost at this airport. There’s this cute little train that takes you from one terminal and deposits you into another. Quite cool really. (For a zombie that is.)

I had enough sense to ask at an info desk which direction I should be going, once I arrived at Terminal three. They said I should head to Gate E27 but that I shouldn’t head that way too soon in case the gate was changed. Ah, time for a toilet stop, me thinks. Just as well. It was a long walk to E27. Having done the necessaries, I headed off in the general right direction. I thought I was pacing along really well until a passenger using a Zimmer frame shot past me. Hmm. Zombie. Just as well I wasn’t looking at myself. I can just picture it now. Staring vaguely off to the horizon, arms out stretched, groaning non-sensically .

I eventually arrived at gate E27 with what I thought was a few minutes to spare. Sure enough the gate was the right one. Phew. (They hadn’t changed it in the time it took to get there.)

It seemed to take a while before anything started to happen, but it did. I thought the flight may not be heavily booked as there didn’t seem to be many people waiting. I was wrong. This flight always seems to be full. I did get a surprise though. Yet again, I had the whole row to myself. I kept thinking to myself, that someone is gonna come and fill the seats. Right up until the pilot asked the cabin crew to secure the doors. (Wow. A whole row to myself. This was even better than the first leg of the trip. Why, you may ask. Well…) By now, my body was telling me it was getting late. I wasn’t sure how late. So I found a way to adjust the seats so I could stretch out, wrapped a blanket around me, and …

Have you ever tried to sleep like an up-turned banana with arm rests sticking into strange places! It kinda doesn’t work to well.

Oh the blissful sound of ‘This is your Captain speaking. Shortly we will be landing…”

The New Delhi airport is something to behold. When I was last here, they were still building the terminal in anticipation of the Commonwealth Games. Now its finished. The first thing that struck me as we were walking out from the plane, was the emptiness of the place. Like Singapore, we walked forever to get to arrivals. In this case, it was like walking through a ghost-airport. It felt like the airport was way to big for the amount of traffic that comes into it.

We waited for a while to get our bags. There was one or two pieces coming onto the carrousel every couple of minutes. Then we were supposed to choose the green line if we had nothing to declare, or the red line for declarations. I chose the green line. Only problem was. It led me into a barrier. Nope, can’t go that way. I know. I’ll be a sheep and follow the crowd. We walked right past the guards who were busy chatting and out into the wonder that is Delhi.

The driver was there to meet me. He herded me up, poked me into a car and took off for the hotel. By this stage it was 6 am NZ Time. I know, ‘cause the alarm on my cellphone went off whilst we were heading for the hotel.

So, midnight, local time, I climbed into bed. Ah, this is so nice… Blink. My body says time to get up. Doh!!!! 3.30 am local time.