That 14 hour flight...

(followed by another 8 hour one)

Many, many people asked me if I was ready for this flight.  I'm not sure whether it was self preservation or stupidity, but I spent a lot of time not thinking about it at all.  In my mind, the kids had "done it all" before.  They've certainly flown between Singapore and New Zealand (and other places) before anyway. The scary reality though, is that Melbourne to Abu Dhabi is over 14 hours, longer than the kids have flown in any direction, and we are following it up with another 8 hour journey to London with little more than a toilet stop at the airport in Abu Dhabi.  What were we thinking?!!

Much more than any other holiday, I planned and overthought the seating arrangements, kids' snacks, what to take on board (as little as possible, that never changes!) and whether or not to take a car seat on board for Jack.  We did bring the car seat and, despite a couple of hiccups, it was definitely the right option for us.  Jack, as you know, is a hurricane at the best of times but being cooped up in one spot for hours on end is basically his worst nightmare.  The car seat didn't actually solve that problem, but it did mean he couldn't undo his own seatbelt at least!  He also had somewhere comfortable and familiar to sleep and for the most part, that worked.

There were a few downsides to the car seat thing: it meant the seat back touch screen was right at his eye level AND he could reach it.  He could also kick the seat in front of him.  We attempted to be less annoying to our fellow passengers by putting Daniel in front of Jack on both flights (sorry Daniel!!).  Not much we could do about the TV screen except to keep it switched off.  

Then when we arrived in Abu Dhabi, Mike had the FUN task of getting the car seat unbuckled from the plane.  Hahahahahaha.  That was enjoyable.  We learned our lesson for the next flight and didn't do the buckle up RIGHT in the middle of the back of the seat (though that did mean it wasn't secured quite as tightly as it should have been I guess).  One more tip about the car seat - Mike also fashioned straps (using straps off two sports bags) so that he was able to carry the seat on his bag when we were in the airport/boarding the plane and that was a LIFESAVER.

The other two boys were pretty happy to have unlimited access to movies and iPad games.  In fact, Callum got so into playing the games on the inflight entertainment that we had to "ban" them on the second leg so that he might actually sleep!!  Daniel still talks about how happy he was to watch 14 hours worth of movies - I think he's the only one actually looking forward to our return flights in November.

We survived though, and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be in the end.  Truly.  But that doesn't mean I am looking forward to flying home again though ;)  

Pre take-off..

Day 1: Wellington to Melbourne

Finally, the big day has arrived and I am sitting in between Daniel and Jack en route to Melbourne, our first stop on our 3 month journey.  Mike is filling out our arrival cards, the big kids are enjoying playing on their iPads at last and Jack is playing cars with his Cheerios on the arm rest... And it still feels completely unreal that we are embarking on this trip that will take us to visit friends in London, family in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic and a whole lot of other places too.  Three months stretches out before me like the endless sky outside the window and yet I know it will be over before we know it: back to school drop offs and playcentre duty and hanging out for Friday afternoon wines.

Yesterday I asked the boys to think about how they were feeling about going away: about where we'd be going and all the new things we will see and experience while we're there.  They have been ridiculously excited about today for weeks and yet yesterday we had tears about how many play dates they will miss while they're gone (approximately 23, according to Callum) and missing birthday parties and dinners at Wagamama.  It's a tough life!