Destination Delhi

5th Feb 2020
Enjoyed our lunch at the new Gisborne airport and had a good flight to Auckland up the centre of the island.

The Bay of Plenty is very dry. Rotorua Lakes in the distance

The Novotel is a short walk from the domestic airport, and directly opposite the International, so it is easy to hijack a trolley and take it to the hotel.

After Duncan has a gym workout, he re-purposes the trolley as a washing line.

From our hotel we can see the plane with the Corona virus evacuees touch down. The we head down to a buffet. Our waiter is Sachin and I remark that this is a good cricketing name. he replies "Sachin Tendulkar is very popular where  I come from in India". I fear Sachin's other customers didn't get much service after this! He had done a diploma in hospitality in India and was doing post grad work experience in NZ. Most importantly he teaches us Namaste (hello) and Dhanywaad (thank you) but we learn that this is an obsolete term!

Thursday, 6th February 2020.

Up at 5.30 this morning and load our cases onto the trolley, check in and have breakfast at the Koru Club.

The plane is very empty - our section would normally hold 40, but there are only 10 of us, and I guess because of the light weight of the plane we arrive 20mins early into Hong Kong. In the meantime I watch "The Goldfinch" and "Downton Abbey", do a couple of crosswords and read my book. We were surprised that they dimmed the cabin lights after serving us breakfast, and again after lunch (we managed to get a glass of wine with this - not readily supplied on Cathay Pacific.)

Lots of people wearing masks sporadically at Hong Kong airport - so I don't know how much help they were. We went straight to our gate, but had about 2 hours to wait so we both went for a good walk among the posh shops.

 The flight from Hong Kong to Delhi is not quite six hours, so I watch "The Farewell" a film that Heather had enjoyed. The vegetable pickle with dinner is very hot - so the curries have started!
It is very late by the time we have wound our way through multiple customs/health/visa checks.

Our guide drapes us in marigold garlands. He speaks very good English so it is a good trip to the hotel.