SWMBO and I left our son's house in Fiji yesterday at 08:45 and made our way to Nausori Airport 72 km away. We arrived in good time (Fiji Airways insists that you check in 3 hours before the departure time) after explaining to the nice policeman why we overtook a 15 kph truck on a double white line, that Fiji authorities love to put on a long straight.

The flight was due to leave at 13:10, but, as everybody was aboard by 12:50, we cranked up the engines and took off at least 15 minutes early in B737-800 DQ-FJF. We really thought that this was an auspicious beginning as we had been told by one of the airport security guys who recognised me (in a good way) that the previous 2 flights out of Nausori had been dogged by delays and cancellations. The half-asleep lady at check-in managed to put us in separate rows, but we managed to sort this out once aboard.

We arrived in Auckland after an uneventful flight, and made our way to the Domestic Terminal in the inter-terminal bus. We normally walk, but on this occasion, there was a strong cool wind and a light rain, which threatened to develop into something more serious on the 10-minute walk between terminals.

A long queue awaited us when we went to check in, so we opted to check ourselves in at the self-check-in stations provided. The first check-in terminal was U/S, the second said that it was only for something that we weren't. We finally found one that was just right for us. However, once we checked in and checked our boarding passes, we found that our arrival in Wellington was quite a bit later than our supposed departure from the same port for Nelson. Luckily, we were advised to hang on to our luggage while we sussed out what was going on.

Turned out that Wellington was doing what it does best and flights through there were experiencing delays. We chose to camp the night here and continue in the morning.

An all female crew landed us safely in Nelson at 08:25 this morning. The Q300 greased onto the runway in a very work[wo]manship manner, that would have impressed our old Dad.

Home again.