Aeroplanes!

To get to Great Britain we have to catch three different planes!

The first plane will fly us from Palmerston North to Auckland.  This flight takes 1 hour and 5 mins.

The plane is called an ATR 72.  It is a twin-engine turboprop plane which can carry 68-78 passengers.

• Length: 27.17 m (89 ft 2 in)
• Wingspan: 27.05 m (88 ft 9 in)
• Height: 7.65 m (25 ft 1 in)
• Cruise speed: 511 km/h

After we arrive in Auckland we have to go to the International Terminal and wait for four whole hours before leaving for Singapore! But it's OK, because there is a McDonald's there, some shops that sell books and toys and some of my relatives might stop by to see us off.

Because Great Britain is on the other side of the world, we have to make a stop half way there.  There are different places we can stop at, such as Dubai, Hong Kong, Los Angeles or Singapore.  We are going to be stopping in Singapore at Changai Airport.  

The flight will take 10 hours and 50 mins and is on a Boeing 777-200.  The Boeing 777 is the world's largest twin-engine plane and can carry 314-451 passengers.

• Length: 63.7 m (209 ft 1 in)
• Wingspan: 60.9 m (199 ft 11 in)
• Height: 18.5 m (60 ft 9 in)
• Cruise speed: 905 km/h

After stay in Singapore for 2 hours and 25 mins before we leave for the final part of our journey.  Changai Airport is huge!  They have a free movie theatre, playgrounds, a butterfly park and lots of shops and food places.  There is even a hotel in the terminal you can stay at if you have a long stop over and want to get a good sleep.

The airplane we will be flying from Singapore to London is even bigger!  It is an Airbus A380 and it is like a double decker plane with two levels of seats!  It has four engines and is the world's largest passenger plane and can carry 523-555 passengers.  This flight is also going to be the longest at 13 hours 25 minutes.  

• Length: 72.75 m (238 ft 8 in)
• Wingspan: 79.8m (261 ft 10 in)
• Height: 24.08 m (79 ft)
• Cruise speed: 900 km/h

So in total, we should be travelling 31 hours and 45 mins from Palmerston North Airport to Heathrow Airport, London.  That is like a day and a half!  

We will be at Heathrow airport for 2 hours 30 mins before our shuttle will collect us and take us to our hotel in London.  We have to allow for time to get off the plane, get our passports stamped and then collect our bags.  There will be lots of people.  Once we have everything sorted we can get some food while we wait for the shuttle.  

Heathrow is a little distance outside of London so it will be about an hour's drive to our Hotel.  So really the total time will be about 35 hours in total- almost two days!  But because of the time difference between Great Britain and New Zealand, we leave on Wednesday afternoon and arrive on Thursday afternoon!  Crazy!  I am lucky I have a watch that I can have two different time zones on because it is going to be very confusing.

On the planes I will have my own entertainment device that I can watch TV or movies on, play games or listen to music.  I will also take some books, toys and lego with me.  I can sleep on the plane and they give us food as well.  I am going to have a window seat so I will be able to see the clouds.