We’ve arrived!

We left Auckland at 11pm on Tuesday night. Thank you to those who came to see us off!

The first leg of our flight was with Air New Zealand to Shanghai Pudong on a 787-9 Dreamliner. Air NZ’s service was impeccable; professional, friendly, and without fault. The in-flight entertainment system is decades ahead of the old-school controller-on-a-rope system, still used by others (*cough* Swiss). The bigger windows of the 787-9 are great, and the electrochromic shades are magical.

We had a good flight, catching a bit of a sunrise as we neared Shanghai.

Shanghai Pudong airport is massive; China’s largest. Even in transit, there’s a fair bit of counter-hopping and marshalling by officials. It was good to get to our gate lounge and relax a bit.

The second leg was with Swiss to Zürich. The Airbus A340-300 is not as fancy as the Dreamliner, and the Swiss staff just don’t quite hit the balance of friendly professionalism exemplified by the Air NZ crew.

Arriving in Zürich, we collected our Awesome rental car, and headed out into rush-hour traffic. The poor boys had a rough trip, as we managed to fit them and all (six pieces of check-in, plus carry-on) of our luggage into the Opel Astra hatchback. The GPS got us to our new home for the next five months.

Above is the view from our bedroom, looking south over the Baldeggersee, with Pilatus to the right-of-centre, and Titlis in the centre, at the back, with snow.

So, today we’ll take it easy;  unpack some things, buy some groceries & stuff, and settle in. 

Until next time…