A bit of background first

As 2020, after a 7 day early February Queensland cruise was devoid of travel, it was the shortest blog I have done since I started, prior to our World Cruise in 2011!

 I must admit that March or April 2020, I thought the Covid epidemic would be under control by August, so I wasn’t too pleased that the September 2020 Goodwood Revival race meeting was cancelled, and my pre booked, pre-paid Air New Zealand flights to and from the UK had to be rolled over to 2021.

 At that time, Air NZ were flying to the UK via Los Angeles twice daily, so as LAX has always been my favourite stopover (I’m a Universal Studios, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm fan), that was what I was going to do, with a return visit to the Petersen museum in Hollywood a must see.  Then Air NZ announced that they were dropping LAX/LHR flights altogether.

 By the time it came to rolling over the booking for 2021, Virgin Atlantic had stepped in, but AIR NZ had also cut back the AKL/LAX frequency so the trip had to be reshuffled – more than once, as flight schedules changed. When I say the trip, it wasn’t just flights, but the car hire booking and hotel bookings. As 2021 progressed Covid restrictions, country by country seemed to change almost daily, but I was at least optimistic that at least the Goodwood Revival would still be on and once they announced that BRM (racing cars) were to be featured, to celebrate their 70 years, I was even more determined to be there and also catch up with family and friends, ever aware that with advancing years, the number of school friends particularly, shrinks each year. 

 When NZ and Singapore were put onto the UK’s Green list for incoming travellers, and the USA wasn’t, it made sense to switch to flying via Singapore – which in itself, caused considerable hassles for our wonderful Travel Agent, Caroline, trying to get the money back from Air NZ.

 Reading the rules for entry carefully, it seemed that a stopover in Singapore going out was possible, but the return flight, would have to be straight through, with a transit stop only in Singapore.

 Then the fun, well stress, really started.

 Returning to NZ, a 14 day stay in managed isolation/quarantine is compulsory but places are limited. Without a place in MIQ, it isn’t possible to return to NZ, even if vaccinated.

 So, the search began for an MIQ place, arriving at a suitable time.  The calendar showed the remainder of June, July, August, September and October. I was originally scheduled to arrive September 23^rd. So from early June, the search began.

 The next post will be about the hassles of trying to book an MIQ slot.