We have made it to Moscow, but we stopped off in Hong Kong for a day, to break the huge journey up for Bucky. It turns out that this was a fantastic plan, not just for Bucky's sake, but for ours. The 11 hour journey from Auckland to Hong Kong was extremely hard going. Even though the plane hadn't left until midnight, the cabin was busy for a couple of hours while the staff prepared our dinner and served it to us. Perhaps the plan is to keep us up for a few hours in the expectation that once we have then slept for eight hours, we only have time to have breakfast and brush our teeth before the plane lands.
However, this enforced late sleep was a disaster for Bucky; already awake many hours past his bedtime, he was frantically overtired. The poor thing was so restless during the night that he didn't stay in one position for more than an hour. He switched between lying on Deirdre and lying on the seats. (We were lucky to have two seats between us for him to lie down on.) Between helping Deirdre lie him down and lunging to catch him as he squirmed and tipped towards the floor, I got very, very little sleep. I did get to watch two whole movies (Children of Men and The Prestige) and read most of the book I took along to past the time in-flight. All three of us arrived at Hong Kong shattered.
Our objectives in Hong Kong were to simply recover from the trip and to prepare for the next leg. We were largely successful in that. We also found time to walk up and down Nathan Rd a few times and take a ferry trip to Hong Kong island - here is a photo of Bucky on the ferry trip (click on it for a bigger version of the photo). We also got to have yum char for one of our meals.Hong Kong really reminded me of why I love travelling so much. Just being there, with nothing much to do, was exciting. It is a fascinating place, Hong Kong. It was hot and very humid, and had that quintessential, indescribable tropical smell to it. And then on top of that it had its own characteristic smells, such as barbecued duck and five-spice and the exhaust from the fleets of double-decker buses.
Bucky was a real hit in Hong Kong. Every second person we passed gave him an adoring smile and he had people leaning into his stroller to wave at him or to shake his hand.
However, we were only there for a day, before flying out to Munich and then to Moscow. Again we left late at night, but Bucky, still feeling the effects of the first flight, fell asleep before we even began to taxi. This made the night much easier to get through, though it did mean we had to entertain him for hours after he woke, as well as for most of the flight to Moscow. If I never have to read Hairy Maclary again I will be very happy.
25 hours in the air and numerous connecting bus trips - the trip over to Moscow was one of the more exhausting and stressful things I have been through as a parent. Now that we are here, it was all worth it of course. Also, Bucky was a real trooper. Despite developing a fever on the day we left and enduring everything we put him through - broken sleep routines, hours of boredom, little chance to run around - he kept his spirit through it all. There have been a few little tantrums when we prevented him from trying to getting into stuff he shouldn't be playing with (born of extreme tiredness of course), but he has otherwise been his usual charming, exuberant self. If anything, all the changes and new stuff to see suit his curious nature.
