2 June 2025

Had a great night's sleep until 4am when we got up to the loo. Had just got back into bed when Sue's burglar alarm went off. Sue got up to check things and turn off the alarm and said she was going to have a cup of tea. I was wide awake so got dressed and joined her in the kitchen while Pete went back to sleep until 7am.

Sue and I had a great chat with numerous cups of tea and chai latte until the boys got up. After saying goodbye to Ned, who was off to work, Sue made us delicious bacon and eggs and then we grabbed showers. A final coffee before heading out the door to the airport.  Thank you Ned and Sue for hosting us again and for dropping us at the airport, which was a seamless operation. 

Getting the boxes through the bollards on the trolley however was not quite so seamless as we couldn't fit. Had to unload the boxes outside the bollards and push the trolley through and reload the boxes on the other side.  Had the same challenge with the bollards right outside the airport doors, but we managed. 

Lined up to drop the bike boxes and were relieved to see they concurred with Air NZ at 24kg and 24.6kg.  The limit was 25kg so that was cruisey.

Upstairs to get some Euros before going through security. Pete got pulled up by the female inspector who wanted to inspect the bulge in his pants. Thankfully it was just tissues and not the menacing weapon she'd maybe suspected.

I got pulled up for having a 7cm long bread and butter knife in my kitchen bag, so they kept that, (you're only allowed 6cm, which as we all know is simply not long enough). Fear not, I already have a plan to smuggle out a replacement from our meal on the flight to Paris.

Made our way to a relatively empty Gate 3 to do some yoga before being locked in on our 17 hour flight. Pete got a bit distracted though as the Gate began to fill up and he started counting the amount of babies on our flight. 

"That's five babies on our flight, and eight kids as well" he informed me.

Lucky for us they were all very good on the long flight. Yes there was crying and a bit of whinging, but once Pete got some food, he was fine.  We had a worrying moment just before take-off when they got the medic on to take someone's blood pressure just behind us. There was talk of getting them and their suitcase off but luckily the blood pressure was good and we proceeded with the flight...and they survived the trip. 

It was actually the smallest plane we've been on for a flight to Europe.  The seats were really small and I had to walk sideways down the aisle to avoid banging people's elbows on the aisle seats.

But we did our usual stretching and there was no room for anybody wanting to pray to Mecca. We didn't get much sleep so when we reached Doha, the search was on for a quiet place to put our sleeping mats.  Thanks to a tip off from Brody and Aimee, we found a nice little spot in the garden.

Once we'd claimed our spot, I left Pete with the luggage and went to brush my teeth and fill my water bottle. When I came out, I turned into the garden and just could not find Pete. It's only a small area with little rest areas hidden away, but I just kept circling the same area for what must have been half an hour! That was really awful and frustrating but finally I recognized a palm tree I'd commented on earlier, got my bearings and found him.

So we got out our sleeping mats and blew them up and lay down to get some rest. It was no good though. We were both too wired, so while Pete managed to doze a bit, I wrote the blog.

Pete now: Because of the length of time Julia had taken just visiting the loos, I was becoming very concerned. I had done at least half an hour of stretching and yoga and was now imagining all sorts of scenarios.

What if a couple of guys had grabbed her?

Where would I possibly look?

Who would be able to find her? 

I told her about my concern with her delayed absence and she said how lovely it was, that I thought a couple of guys would snatch her for a sex slave, at the age of sixty one.

I didn't tell her that my thoughts were that they would have kidnapped her as a cleaner.

I still need her as my sex slave!  (Note from Ju, if they wanted a cleaner, they'd have been better off kidnapping Pete!)

After a short doze, where Julia wrote some of the blog, we were both wide awake.  Replied to messages and caught up with other stuff.

So, even at 1.40pm, the airport is still buzzing.

I can only imagine what it will be like in the morning.

Just reading the departure notice board through until 3am, there must be fifty flights.

Julia has just gone to check food prices and see if anyone needs a quicky for a price that will cover our food.

After finding out that a burger from Gordon Ramsay is NZ $54 and a pizza from Street Pizza is NZ $40, I'm off to wander the runway for some roadkill.

At 2am we abandoned all hope of sleeping, rolled up our mats and went for a wander around the airport.  We had now been in Doha airport for six hours and last eaten eight hours ago, so we succumbed to two $11 coffees from Costa and Pete got a sandwich and I got some oats, which were all very nice. 

Pete wanted to go through the gardens but I'd already seen all of the gardens and didn't need to see them again. But he got some nice photos.

We just wandered around the airport, looking at the shops and visiting the pristine toilets as we didn't feel tired at all. At 4.30am our Gate number came up so we made our way there and found the only loungers we'd seen in the whole airport at Gate 21, our gate was Gate 20. So we nabbed two of the 12 loungers there and tried to get some sleep. Bit hard when the guy behind you is playing some noisy game without headphones.  

So I put my headphones on and played some soothing music in an attempt to drown out gaming boy.  Then the couple next to me decide to wake up and start talking. Then she starts wandering off and he starts yelling after her!! Couldn't understand what they were saying but I got the idea he was trying to tell her the way to the toilet. They are everywhere here. You could literally put a blindfold on and stumble your way into one. Think my only hope is to get some sleep on the plane! At least this next flight is only 6 hours, 50 mins.