An easy train out to Helsinki airport. We’re flying FinnAir to Seoul then AirNZ home.

Before I even got to the airport I’d decided I would never fly FinnAir again. Their customer service is terrible! I booked these July flights in January. They did not bother to reserve a seat for us on the AirNZ flight, and when checking in they could not check us in for our second leg either! So AirNZ had no idea we were coming up till about 3 hours before the flight. Normal back in the day, not so normal these days when you can check in online 24 hours prior. Frustrating!

So we checked in, through security and then directly to duty-free. I’d found a flavour of Baileys Irish Cream in Europe and it was very very nice! I’d searched high and low through NZ duty free and liquor websites and could not guarantee I could source it in NZ, so I was buying bottles to take home! We wandered round the airport, finally settling at our gate. 

Not sure if Mum expects my hour by hour flight commentating but she gets it! Hauled this out of the depths of what’s app for you to enjoy!

Hour 0 – Boarding was at 4.50pm for a 5.15pm flight, which as soon as I saw it I thought ‘what a joke’, you can NOT load a long haul A350 that fast. Ended up starting to bored at 4.30 but not from the bridge….to a bus, then round to the plane attached to a bridge?? So so odd. Loaded from steps at the back, again so bizarre! On we got. 3 seats in the middle bit and CK one row behind on the isle.

Hour 1 – Off we went, late even though boarding started early! ‍♀️The take off was fantastic at full thrust it was so quiet! Even more so when the wheels got put away. It was really really noticeable how quiet the engines were and how good the sound proofing is! Amazing! Yay Airbus! ✈️ Entertainment system only got livened up once the seatbelt sign went off at some reasonable altitude, we’ve got cameras on the tail and on the belly. Would have been nice to watch that during take off!!! It’s got this great timeline of how long the flight is, when food is coming and when they’re turning the lights out for sleeping. Thought it was an 11 hour 50 min flight – today we’re going to knock it out in 11 hours and 5 minutes! Tail wind maybe? Then all the documentation came out – that would be me doing all that x 4 people while the rest of the whanau started on movie watching.

Hour 2 – Food! No choice – get what you’re given. Was nice though. Chicken casserole / pasta salad / wafer chocolate bar thing + blueberry juice. Got up and put a hoody on – planes are always so cold! Went to the business class toilet and brushed my teeth (not using plane water!!) and put aligners in – good girl me ‍♀️ Fell asleep but Connor came over and woke me up

Hour 3 – Tried to get back to sleep. Did some praying. Tried to parent CK from afar. Tummy unhappy probably due to onion in dinner.

Hour 4 – 7 Broken sleep

Hour 8 – Got frustrated with 2 inconsiderate people having their window shade up lighting up the entire dark cabin! Let RK put her head on my lap to sleep, she’s between her mummy and daddy and loving it. She went back to sleep quickly. She’s so cute when she sleeps.

Hour 9 – Watched time go by! Breakfast got served, no choice again. Omlette with cream cheese inside with a side of cubed up potatos and broccoli. More blueberry juice.

Hour 10 – Eyes burning, put glasses on, looked at movie selection. Nope nothing that takes my fancy. Thinking Seoul is going to be a bit of a nightmare. Need to go to transfer desk to check into next flight, also carrying 3 bottles of baileys from duty free in Helsinki but want to pop into the city. Unsure how that’s all going to work? Can’t check my baileys as our luggage all been checked through to Auckland so if I take it out of ‘air side’ I’m significantly over the 100ml thing! It’s bagged with no tamper and a receipt etc up butttttt doubt that means anything to anyone at security!

Hour 11 – The final hour.

So into Seoul we went. Decided we would go into Seoul, found a mall we’d like to visit, found a bus and off we went, in the pouring rain as only Asia does at that time of the year! 

By this time my three bottles of baileys had got tucked into my carry on suitcase. We splashed around, got wet but found the mall, had some food looked around then back on the bus to the airport to try and check in!!! We queued up, I’m sure we looked odd because we barely had any luggage it had all been checked through! I get to the front and again explain I’m a transfer customer and really shouldn’t be here….but I need boarding passes x4 and I have a wee dilemma of 3 bottles of baileys that I don’t want taken off me at security!!! So she looks at what luggage is against my booking, 3 bags. “And a 4th item that is a car seat” I exclaim. She looks confused, so I’m half thinking it’s got lost, again. Ahh well. Whatever. So she fortunately checks my carry on bag. Of course I’ve emptied out my drone and lithium batteries etc, added my 3 bottles of baileys, packed them in with my jacket that’s now dried from the rain because it’s so hot and muggy in Korea and off it goes.

We process through security, we splash out on airport food again, then we get to our gate and see the most magnificent thing….night time dark sky! Wow it’s been months. Our plane gets delayed due to a passing weather event. Then we board.

Hour 0 – Sat delayed by engineers flushing through liquid something? Nothing to be concerned about apparently. Then weather stopped all traffic. Once that passed by we were pushed back exactly 1 hour delayed, to the minute! We joined the other delayed flights and slowly taxied up to run way for our turn.

Hour 1 – Take off pretty dodgy. In the dark and foggy smoggy rain. Very bumpy but we’d been warned by our captain, Mike. What a noisy Boeing Dreamliner this plane is! That Airbus definitely was quiet. My well travelled wee girl was pretty scared so we held hands and I talked her through it. Not captain Mikes first rodeo, won’t be his last, he’s got pilots chatting in his ear ahead of him and behind him, he knows the weather forecast well. Woulda been a challenge for Captain Mike and his colleagues though. So the whole plane sat still in the dark in the terrible turbulence for probably an hour. Little pre schooler behind us : ‘the plane is going down’  His Daddy: ‘UP!!!’  Preschooler : ‘The plane is going down and up!!!!’ Haha.

Hour 2 – Still turbulent but the crew informed us the flight deck had allowed them to start their duties, they were great getting water out to everyone then finally dinner. At 1am local time! Me n rubs had chicken, boys had beef. Cheese cake for dessert!  

Hour 3 – Finished up dinner, went to the toilet and then back to our seats. Fell asleep while all cabin lights still on. Just couldn’t keep eyes open.

Hour 4-7 – Slept quite solidly between my two kiddies  

Hour 8 – Woke up over PNG. Checked to see we’d finally given up 33 thousand feet for 37, that’s a bit better! Less bumpy up here! Moved to RK’s window seat and she fell asleep on me. Watched the world go by. 

Hour 9 – Snuggled my girl. Boys swapped seats. Snuggled up with my husband. Then the cabin  lights went on….slowly and orange like a sunrise! Yawn. Breakfast rolled out, omelette, hash brown, sausage + fruit salad + muffin + yoghurt. I didn’t get to the yoghurt, way too full! 

Hour 10 – Ate breakfast then sat with the rubbish. Took photos of us near Brisbane on the flight map for Han. Watched the air hostesses working hard. Put glasses on, eyes been working hard on not much sleep. Started watching Whitney Houston movie but decided I wanted to watch with my nice Sonos speakers at home to hear her properly so gave up on that.

Hour 11 – The decent into Auckland. Beautiful.

 

And we were home. Customs almost took our Camino shells off us but when I kicked up a fuss the supervisor came over and let them through.
Sister n law swooped past with our car, we piled in and I drove us home as BK was a wee bit too tired.
Drove into our garage just as the sun set on a Friday night. Perfect timing.

Half unpacked and into bed for everyone! We all slept solidly right through the night.

Europe trip 2023 – complete.

Yes the next trip has been dreamt up, will be a different one that’s for sure, may even lead a group of parents and teenagers….watch this space!

Team Knowles, over and out.

Till next time,

Claire x