Those of you who know me well, will no doubt wonder how I managed to remain 'confined' to a seat on a long flight for an inordinately long period of time. Let me tell you it wasn't easy.
Having left home at 6pm on Tuesday we arrived in Auckland at 2pm on Thursday, which meant we were in the the air for approximately 24hrs. Leg stretches, hip flexes and walking the length of the Airbus 380 a couple of times proved useful, as well as entertaining for the other passengers.

There are only so many episodes of 'Two and a Half Men' you can watch before Charlie Sheen begins to 'grate' on one's sleep deprived, 'jangled' nerves. Similarly, as a self confessed lover of airline food (my family think me strange) and although Emirates meals were very good, even their appeal diminished after the third breakfast.

After a brief stopover in Sydney we finally hit the Land Of The Long White Clouds and breathed a sigh of relief. Then we went through customs.

NZ are pretty strict on what you can or can't bring into their country and aside from the obvious drugs, ammunition and contraband, they also get quite twitchy about certain potentially contaminating items such as plants, seeds, wooden objects and hiking boots.
Having declared our boots on the landing card (not doing so, could have meant a hefty fine) we were directed to zone 1, where my worse fears were confirmed, they would need to look at my boots, which were right at the bottom of my extremely well packed kit bag!

Ian deftly extracted his boots for inspection and was cleared through customs; I, on the other hand, was trying to prevent my underwear from making an unscheduled appearance, as I struggled to retrieve my boots from the depths of my bag.

Having ones boots taken for washing and 'de-contaminating' is slightly humiliating, especially when they are returned in separate plastic bags, thereby announcing to the world that the remnants of Peak District mud were considered 'unclean'.

Nevertheless, we eventually left the airport and headed to our rented accommodation, a lovely clapperboard house on the outskirts of Auckland.

By 10.00pm we had familiarised ourselves with the immediate area, eaten, drank a bottle of wine and given way to much needed sleep.