Kia Ora! Day 1-The team all made it to Auckland, dinner with daughter Jaime at the Heartland Hotel, a lot of yarns, laughter and it was good to be in the company of old mates. The friends coming on this part of the trip are Jeremy Matthews (barbershop chorus mate from way back), Seaton Read and his partner Anna. Seaton and I were both born in the Ashburton Maternity Home in the last week of November 1950. Its a good group and I’m very pleased to have their company. We’re waiting for the food and then a quick 9hr40mins to Singapore. The plane is full and I’m sticking to my mask - hoping and hoping 👀. No doubt about it flying is losing it’s attraction. At least the security was pretty time efficient and I only lost my tooth paste >100ml. So the plan is to stopover in Singapore for 6hr then another long flight to Istanbul 11hrs. Then finally the fun starts. 😎