Day One – Flight time!
Hi, my name is Matthew Hanman and I’ve been lucky enough to be chosen to be the diary for Lions Supporter Tours. I booked online over a year ago and booked onto the three test tour – I’m glad that I booked early because I had a choice of tours and hotels that means I could fit in in my budget. I’ve been saving for four years since the last tour and managed to convince my wife that it was ‘our’ holiday of a lifetime. A couple of glasses of Pinot and hopefully it’ll be a lifetime holiday every four years!
I’ve just landed in Auckland after a long old flight. We left Heathrow at 1pm and it took around six hours to get to Dubai. The staff on the Qantas flight (why doesn’t it have a ‘U’?) were superb and food was actually quite nice. The ‘long’ leg was flying from Dubai to Melbourne – it was overnight our time, so I wanted to get some sleep. I was really happy that I bought a neck pillow as I don’t think it would have been half as comfy. I bought one called a TRTL pillow which you sort of wrap around your neck and it supports it – it doesn’t take up as much room as the conventional ones and really worked a treat!
The last leg was Melbourne to Auckland where we were met at arrivals by one of the super friendly Supporter Tour staff, Alex. He showed us to our coach and gave a brief rundown of what to do in Auckland. We’ve just got to our hotel and to be honest it’s time for a power nap!
It's been a fabulous first few days of exploring in Auckland. Once we'd found our bearings, it's actually a pretty easy city to navigate. The Main Street is Queens Street which has plenty of designer stores, from Dior to Louis Vuitton and its fair share of souvenir shops. I did notice out of the corner of my eye a Tiffany & Co, so a quick turn of direction and my wife didn't notice! One of the main attractions is the Sky Tower which we went up late evening. The views are fabulous and with the sun setting over the city it was the perfect end to our first whole day in New Zealand.
