The first post

What a dramatic 30 something hours we have had! But we are here and so is all our luggage, well sort of. I think I will tell the luggage story first as is conjures up giggles and will ease the way for the other travel events...

We left the plane after a beautiful descent over stunning mountain peaks and I have to say I felt quite euphoric as I entered Christchurch airport. There was a real sense of achievement after a long and eventful journey and such expectation for the year ahead... I always greet the baggage reclaim with a little trepidation and today proved to be the reason for this. As I approached the turning belt I saw my suitcase. I was so relieved that it hadn't popped during transit that I failed to notice Dan's bag had already passed. When I say his bag what I really mean is the bag and much of its exploded contents sprawled across the black rubber. Dan shouted for help and after a moments hesitation (as I didn't want to leave the rest of the bags) I ran over to assist Dan. And assist him I did, picking up underwear which were part of the exploded contents which Dan had now thrown onto the floor in the middle of the airport in fear that if he wasn't hasty they would disappear to the place bags go to outside the airport when the rotating belt reaches the big flaps of doom. Among other items loose on the conveyor-belt were one black shoe, multiple pairs of socks, several books, two t shirts and tomtom (you survived the incident praise God).

Picture it you may! It wasn't pretty and of course was followed by 2 hours trying to sort out the broken bag with the airline. We weren't the only ones who's bags had been ruined but were the only people (probably in history) who's undergarments became public display as a result of such events. During these two hours we also had to call Lloyds (the bank in the UK) as they had kindly locked our cards despite being told about our plans and evidently even recording said plans on their computer system. The problem with this was that we needed cash to buy a SIM card to have the credit to call lloyds to get the cards unlocked to get money to buy the SIM card.... you see the problem.

Some of you may find this event enough drama but for those of you eager to hear the rest please read on.

As a doctor one of my biggest fears is the "would any doctor on board please report to isle such and such". Fear not this didn't not happen. As I settled down to watch a movie in what was rather a large, luxurious and exciting plane I glanced round to take in the ambiance and saw two air hostesses one holding an oxygen mask to a woman's face, she was conscious and nodding but didn't look fab. I pointed her out to Dan who unlike me (who was slowly dying inside) sprang into action offering his expertise and assessment. This was all well and good and it seemed the lady was a type II diabetic on insulin who hadn't eaten since four (now eleven) so a sugary drink would solve the problem. Dan gave very clear advice to monitor her and let us know if she didn't improve or deteriorated, and then he came and sat down. They moved the lady to the back of the plane where she could lay down, very logical but meant she was no longer in eyeshot which worried me. It dawned on me that those monitoring her had no medical knowledge and could not be expected to raise the alarm when necessary. So I grabbed Dan and we went to the back of the plane. Something clicked and suddenly doctor Sarah was in the house. Slowly more information came to light. The lack of equipment was frustrating but even more frustrating was the fact we weren't allowed to open anything they did have, like the blood sugar machine, before they had make contact with a medic on the ground to authorise this. We couldn't talk to the medic as this had to be done in the cock pit!

In summary we fixed her, and she and her nephew were extremely grateful; as were the cabin crew. So three hours later we went back to our seats. Dan quickly scoffed down a now rather overdue plane meal which he had missed due to the drama. He took his last mouthful just at the moment an air hostess suggested we meet her at the back of the plane to go upstairs for dinner. We were then shown to the first class lounge, fed steak, cod fillets and wine and purely pampered until the point we decided sleep was an absolute necessity and descended back to economy class to catch a few zzzs.

Thankfully the other two flights were comparatively uneventful and I even managed to squeeze in some retail therapy in Sydney.

I think that's all for now. We're here, we're happy and we're going to bed!

Big love xxx