On the flight into Singapore the announcement of Emirates Team New Zealand's race win to recapture the Americas Cup was greeted with applause by a large section of passengers and a glow of pride swept over me as I sat there in my ETNZ t-shirt!
I know nothing about yachting apart from you need wind to make a yacht move across the water but I had been mesmerised over the last couple of weeks watching the races and trying to comprehend how 3 ton of yacht could rise out of the water and fly along on what looked like no more than 2 ice block sticks and a bent pin.
To think that NZ came up with the most innovative design within the class rules and executed on the water better than the might of Oracle and the other challengers who were in fact pseudo defenders blows me away.
The disappointment is that we are now out of the country and will miss the celebrations that will surely follow over the next week or so.
GD and team you have done us proud and have earned the right to return this competition to more closely reflect the Deed of Gift rather than the "dog" which Coutts and Orifice turned it into!
The flight up from Auckland on Air NZ's Dreamliner was uneventful and after a 2.5 hour stopover in Singapore it was back onto an A380 for the 13 hour drag to Heathrow - while the Dreamliner felt more spacious than the A380 the service offered by Air NZ paled in comparison with that provided by Singapore Airlines.
We arrived at Heathrow around 26 hours after leaving Auckland but as we left at midnight and we had got up at 5am to watch the yachting that morning the body was beginning to shutdown after 45 hours punctuated by around only 4 hours of dozing on the Auckland to Singapore leg - not complaining mind as we choose to come through without breaking the trip in Singapore.
Having cleared Customs etc. we rang to be picked up and taken to the London Eurolease supplier and was introduced to our new Peugeot 3008 which will be our wheels until we sell it back to Eurolease in Paris on 10th September.
We set the GPS with some difficulty it must be said and off we went to our first nights accommodation around 50 miles west of London at Curridge, Newbury in a delightful English pub/inn aptly named The Bunk Inn arriving at 6.45pm.
Driving in a left hand vehicle on the left side of the road while feeling shattered in rain and heavy traffic was a challenge but one we accomplished without coming to blows😅.
A partial unpack, a pleasant meal and a bed which looks so inviting .....zzzzzzzzzzzz!
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