Day Two - Wellington-Sydney-Taipei

Saturday 25 June

Daughter, C, got me up at 4am. R dropped us off at the airport around 5.15am. We met R’s son-in-law, N, there who was travelling to Sydney. We were on the same plane (but we were journeying on via China Airlines to Taipei).

Ghastly breakfast on Air New Zealand – a lukewarm ‘frittata’ which was probably a couple of days old by the taste of it, a small, lukewarm insipid sausage and some fruit which had been in the fridge for at least a day.

We arrived in Sydney and wandered around the airport trying to avoid buying food at horrendous prices ($5 for a pack of crisps). Unfortunately the pack of ‘kangaroo’ crisps was the cheapest item of food we could find.

It was great to see and hear so many different nationalities and to hear boarding calls to Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Santiago, etc. We could pretend we were travelling to any one of those destinations. I went online briefly at one of the internet stations dotted around the airport. Sent email to my brother to give him the latest and let him know we were on our way.

Very creaky China Airlines plane! It had me worried as it creaked and moved just going over the bumps on the runway. But it made it aloft. Nice (fresh!) food. However, I couldn’t sleep. It was cramped and noisy. It was a bonus to be able to watch the view from cameras on the plane in front and below so I could look at the clouds (I was not near a window). Nice muslim chap next to me who was appreciative of my moving every time he or his wife wanted to go to the bathroom.

Long flight!

Taipei airport was weird with a newer area which was bright and shiny and deserted except for a long corridor with moving walkway. We were directed via signs to a monorail which was deserted but seemed to work automatically. We got on and sat down and it moved off towards another terminal. All we could see was blackness outside with the odd lit up building or car. The monorail arrived and we got off, finding ourselves in an older area. The corridor was long and narrow and had shops of souvenirs in NT$. We looked but had no money. Very tired. We found a water dispenser and looked around for cups. On top of it were flat paper pouches – they were the ‘cups’.

We waited for our transfer to another plane going to Frankfurt….