The trip from Cologne to Auckland
It all started well. We packed all the belongings we needed for the month's vacation back in New Zealand. We went to bed early and got a good night's sleep (until 5am). We then went to the station and caught a train to Frankfurt Flughafen (airport).
They have been upgrading the airport, and they've put in this neat shuttle system that takes you between terminals. We had a great view for the 2 minute trip.
We took off on time and flew to London. It was a really nice flight (not very full and great weather).
This is Germany from the air.
This is Antwerp.
We landed in London. We then boarded BA269 to Los Angeles. While taxiing, the pilot noticed a faulty fuel valve in one engine, so we waited on the tarmac for three hours while they tried to fix it.
We, along with the other New Zealanders on the flight, realised we had missed our connecting Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Auckland.
They gave us lots of alcohol to try and lift our spirits, but after three hours in a hot airplane (they didn't switch the airconditioning on), people were restless.
We were then told that a replacement plane had been found, but it would take another four hours to arrive. They acknowledged that we had all missed our connecting flight, so they agreed to put us all in a hotel overnight in Los Angeles.
We got off the plane...
... and queued at the British Airways customer service desk...
... where we got given some dinner vouchers. Because there was only one decent restaurant in the whole terminal, there was quite a large waiting time for a table (I had the British "BSE special" Beef when we finally sat down to eat).
Our new plane finally arrived, and the journey continued...
