Day 1 (Saturday 2nd May 2009) - Rise and shine

It was it was 4.11am (Malaysian time). We were in the Australian airspace when the sun rose that day. The plane touched down at the tarmac around 11.45am (New Zealand time). I have to refer to my photos (which have Malaysian time embedded in the EXIF) to refresh my foggy mind. I have to remind myself that NZ time is ahead 5 hours of Malaysian time.

While waiting for our luggage to pop-out at the conveyer belt, I noticed an airport personnel walking with a cute little dog, sniffing people’s bags. The little dog was specially trained to sniff out plants and dairy products. NZ, being an agricultural country, imposes strict regulation on bringing plants and dairy products. Understandably, you don’t want to have some foreign microbes destroying the whole country’s produce. If you have something against dogs sniffing your bags, just don’t bring food in them. And make sure that the bags have not been used to carry food, especially fruits, for the past two or three days.

Ma Hen spotted Aunt upon exiting the arrival gate. Waiting with Aunt was her niece, D. We hauled our bags into Aunt’s car and headed home, making a brief stop at a meat shop to buy some Halal meat. At home, we met more family members – Gram, doing the laundry in the garage; and Uncle, surfing the internet at the dining table. We unloaded our bags and had lunch. For the life of me, I can’t remember what we ate, only that it was very filling and tasty (all home cooked meal in NZ was superb).

About 8703 km from our starting point: KLIA