[craig1234564]

The flight from UK > NZ or NZ >UK

how do you all get through this? do you find it best to stop overnight or just refuel and get on with it?

obviously its books films etc on the plane, but do they allow PSP or any hand held computer games these days?

[Carey]

Just get on with it! yes it's tedious and long but every minute brings you nearer and you can't get off! Short wait and leg stretch at Hong Kong then off you go again!

[JandM]

I agree with Carey. Well, that's what we did for our trip last year - we had only a limited amount of holiday, and wanted to spend the maximum of time in NZ, so it was the best tactics to have just the one day (roughly) travelling at either end.

As to what you can use on the plane, I think it varies with different airlines. You could try their websites, or email them.

[marcia]

We have done the trip both ways - once the straight through, only a 2 hour stopover in singapore route, that was with our two eldest boys (8 and 10 at the time) When we came on our one way flight to stay for good we opted for the 14 hours in singpore option, booked into the transit hotel at the airport for 10 hours and for us with 3 kids in tow (then 2.5, 9 and 11) it was definately the best choice.

First time we came we brought alsorts with us, colouring books, reading books, hand held games etc, none of which came out of the bags! There are games to play on the flight entertainment system, not up to psp standards by any means - (which I think are allowed on the flight - just not for take off and landing of course!)

Hardest to keep entertained was our youngest one who got bored of watching films and we had to take it in turns to have a wander up and down the plane with him, he slept a bit, sprawled all over us of course - the other two were really no bother at all, but would recommend travel sickness pills to be on the safe side - mine had never previously been travel sick but eldest was ill first time around, so gave them tablets 2nd time and no problems.

I think it all depends what ages your kids are, as to how to keep them entertained - if they are little monsters perhaps drugs is your best option! :D

[benandclare]

Yup just get it over and done with :nice1

[Mels]

We have been twice via LA with Air New zealand and yes best way is to just get it over and done with. First time our two were 7 and 9 years and Air New Zealand didn't have screens in the back of seats. So packed books puzzles and biscuits!!!
Second time we had a 5 hour delay and during the flight our then 10 year old had some passenger throw up over him. :exit

Crew were brilliant though and sorted everthing out.

Hopefully next time we will have a less 'eventful' flight:D

Mels

[CJ22]

Sleep, Ipod, book, Nintendo DS. If they had power-sources on airplanes I'd use my laptop, but the two-hour battery life won't get me far.

[Helsandfamily]

We did it both ways too - 1st time had a stop over in Hong Kong for 4 days. Which was a great break and part of the holiday, in hindsight we felt that we would have preferred to have had longer in NZ, so the next time we went we did it as a straight trip with a 2 hour stop over in Bang kok, no children though which I think would have made it MUCH harder.

When we go next (for good) I think we will have a week somewhere I am hoping for either Florida (for disney etc, or LA, for the same although the queues, are supposed to be horrendous in LA..... )

Hels

[Rusty]

We did it straight through on our holiday with a 6 hour stop and shower at Singapore.
The only thing we did plan was to fly from London at 1830, which meant the kids slept a lot of the 1st flight at their usual bed times.
We just assumed we would be tired whichever way we tried, although we were sooo spaced out when we got to ChCh our bodyclock would accept any time we told it and we actually went to bed at 10pm local time - The kids didn't though!

[Pebbles]

We got it over and done with twice :yes First time via LAX , second time via Hong Kong. Jetlag pretty much the same.
We figured that if we wished to vacation in Asia then we would have done so seperately. Just wantred to get to NZ :raebanana
And in June we will go straight thru again!
The magazines and books I lugged along twice were hardly used ... loads to see and do both on airports and airplanes.

[mgbridges]

Our then 5yr old son had never flown before so we decided to get it all over and done with as quickly as possible. This was based on the assumption that if he wasn't going to like flying it would probably be the taking off and landing that he'd hate most so we wanted to keep those to a minimum.

We took a late Singapore Airlines flight out of Heathrow, made sure he ate well before getting on the plane and he slept for most of the first leg. We had 5 hrs in Singapore where we made use of the Transit lounge (highly recommended) - both got a shower, OH had a massage, checked email, plenty of soft drinks, bite to eat, bit of a sit down etc. Although we did rather take it in turns whilst the other walked/ran up and down the airport with our son! We also got a Macdonalds for him as he didn't like the kids meals on the plane but then he is a very fussy eater!

I had a very heavy back pack stuffed with books, crayons, colouring books, games, magazines, small toys etc but didn't open it once. We would have preferred for him to sleep but on the 2nd flight he just wanted to watch Shrek 2 or 3 over and over again! Although this meant we didn't get much sleep either we thanked our lucky stars that he wasn't screaming, kicking the seat in front of him or running up and down! :laugh

Dependent on the age of the child, how long you've got and whether you have a real hankering to visit Asia/America (with a jet-lagged kid in tow) I'd say get it over and done with!

HTH
Anneliese

[suzie b]

We went on hols to usa last oct and had really bad experience at LAX. 2 hour wait.rescued as saw our 4 year old being swaped in crowd.No wonder usa nationals queue o get off plane. Not recommended

[Georgebulldog]

I think we will always use the trip as an excuse to visit somewhere along the way if OH has the holiday time, we did DisneyLand on the way out & it got us all into the time difference realy well, had a great time & would think about maybe doing that again as 2 year old will be older & by then the now unborn will most likely be about 2.
It's not like you get to travel this far often so I'm of the mond make the most of it:yes

[Familyofmonkeys]

We took a late Singapore Airlines flight out of Heathrow, made sure he ate well before getting on the plane and he slept for most of the first leg. We had 5 hrs in Singapore where we made use of the Transit lounge (highly recommended) - both got a shower, OH had a massage, checked email, plenty of soft drinks, bite to eat, bit of a sit down etc. Although we did rather take it in turns whilst the other walked/ran up and down the airport with our son!

We did the same, with a 4 hour stop at Singapore. Long enough to let the kids have a run around and get a bite to eat. Our kids were just 4, just 2 and 12 weeks at the time, so we just wanted to et the journey over and done with. It worked out really well as they slept most of the first leg of the journey, so we weren't too tired and they snoozed the second leg. We arrived in Auckland just after midday so by the time we got out of the airport and checked into hotel it was about 2pm. Not too many hours to keep kids awake....we had lunch, had a shower and a walk around Queen st. Kids went to bed at about 6.30pm and slept until 4am, so it wasn't too much of an adjustment to get them into sleep pattern again.....would reccomend doing the same to anyone with small children!

We also took some kids books, their favourite bedtime toys and our PSP's with some games/movies for the journey (but didn't end up using them). The plane was well stocked with colouring books and crayons so plenty to keep kids amused (they are too young to sit and watch films for very long) and whenever they got bored we asked for drinks and snacks to distract them. Alot of the snacks on the plane were salted peanuts, so we were glad we brought our own supply of muesli bars for the kids.