An hour or 30 of traveling

Monday 1 December

From the Netherlands to Belgium to France. Today we traveled by cars (not, as previously thought, a car and a train). Though, unfortunately, we were only able to stop and get out of the car once, for less than 30 minutes. Does that count as having been to Belgium?

The trip there was uneventful, until we hit the airport we wanted to leave the cars in the long term parking and then take the train to Paris. We got lost for a while, lost each other, and eventually managed to find each other once more and all was well.

At night, we had dinner at a kebab place down the street from where we were staying, and then Kimberley, Rebekah (our friend's niece) and I went out to see places around Paris for a while, before heading home.


Tuesday 2 December

We spent the day looking at some of the more touristy places around Paris, such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and the likes.

Not much to talk about; once again, pictures tell the story much better. All going well, I will have some online within the week.


Wednesday 3 December to Friday 5 December

I shall not dwell on this particular stage in time, as it was utterly boring and exhausting and altogether not something I wish to do again anytime soon.

A flight of 6 or so hours to Dubai. A connection to a flight from there to Auckland, New Zealand, vis Singapore and Brisbane, totaling at least 20 hours. Add in the short time between flights, the traveling to Paris airport, the waiting there, the other things on the Kiwi end, and you get a heck of a long time. Especially with no more than 2 hours of sleep, not very good sleep at that.

Customs at Auckland International was interesting. Of course, we knew that we would have to go through everything, so we declared it all. We had a lot of stuff needing declaration. Luckily we didn't get in any trouble, really, with only one thing taken in for fumigation, and one thing detained. The thing detained was my fault: A dagger with a double-edged blade: An big sin according to NZ law (which I already knew). It was not so unexpected. Anyhow, the upside is that it was detained, which can be reversed, as opposed to being...s-omething. The correct term escapes me, but basically being taken without the possiblity of being returned. I plan to, at some stage, apply to the police for a license which would allow me to legally own and keep one of these in New Zealand.

We eventually got through everything and into the country, on to my Aunty's house where we are staying for the weekend.