Simple would be too easy...

Our journey to our beloved pig farm in New Zealand was a little trip from hell, but we didn't expect it to end like this.

We started early in the morning at our hostel and headed to the airport in Tenerife. From there, we took a real tourist bomber from Ryanair for 5 hours to London. Since we were assigned seats and it would cost 7 euros to change them, I thought that someone on the plane would surely switch with us. However, it turned out that many families had the same problem and the same plan as me, and there was complete chaos of seat swapping on the plane. Since I didn't feel like dealing with that, I preferred to endure 5 hours alone without food or drink... damn budget airlines =)

After the 5 hours, I realized that 13 hours in the Dreamliner for long-haul flights are much more relaxing than 5 hours in a tourist bomber...

Arriving in London, we had 6 hours to change airports and took an overpriced shuttle bus all the way around the city. Finally, I was excited because we were going to fly with Singapore Airlines for the first time, which had always been a dream of mine. The flight took 13.5 hours to Singapore. Granted, we had plenty of space and the flight attendant was exceptionally friendly, but the food was like in any other plane and the entertainment system was forgettable... it had never happened before that I didn't like any movie in the selection.

Nevertheless, the flight went by relatively quickly. We only had 1.5 hours layover in Singapore, and I hoped the whole time that I could find a restaurant where I could have my favorite Asian dish called 'Morning glory'. But from now on, everything went wrong...

Already on the plane, our names were called, requesting us to go directly to a Singapore Airlines counter at the airport. Huh? Why??? We disembarked and at the exit, a small Asian woman was already waiting for us, leading us to the next counter. Something about our visa, I couldn't understand more. Did we do something wrong? We knew that we needed an exit ticket for New Zealand and had already booked a onward flight to Australia. Jonas reassured me, maybe there was just a mistake. At the counter, the next Asian lady explained to us that while we had an exit ticket for New Zealand, we didn't have a visa for Australia. We hadn't thought about that yet, as we were still unsure which visa we wanted to apply for in New Zealand. The woman "made a quick call to New Zealand" and put Jonas on the phone. Jonas was now at the airport in Singapore, "having a quick call with New Zealand" and was explained the problem. We needed an exit ticket from New Zealand to another visa-free country that we could cancel later, then everything would be fine. Oh, and by the way, the woman at the counter took our flight tickets for the next flight. Stupid cow!! A considerable amount of time had already passed, and Jonas immediately started to book some flights. If only the damn internet would work.

After a while, everything was finally booked, and we proudly showed the lady our new flight. However, she was not satisfied because we would exceed the transit time in Sydney by a mere 40 minutes (one can only have a maximum of 8 hours transit time at the Sydney airport). Please???? She could have told us that beforehand. We had no choice but to book a new flight, this time to Bali. The clock was ticking and ticking... Jonas was getting restless, and I don't think I need to mention how I felt. The internet kept disconnecting, and Jonas couldn't complete the payment. By now, we only had 10 minutes until the new boarding time. Jonas started cursing and shouting because nothing was working anymore... and for those who know Jonas, when Jonas panics, then it's really a panic situation!!! I didn't say a word anymore and could already imagine us being stuck in Singapore and having to pay thousands of euros for a new flight... And then, a small snobby Asian guy came up to me and asked if I could take a photo of him in front of the Singapore Airlines counter, smiling like a Cheshire cat. That pushed me over the edge, and I scolded the completely confused guy, who quickly ran away.

I think it was really the last minute when the internet finally showed us some mercy, we managed to book the flight, the woman returned our tickets, and we ran to the gate, exhausted and sweating. We could barely believe it. Now, "only" 10 hours to New Zealand...

In the end, it turned out that we couldn't cancel the wrongly booked flights, but we would only receive flight vouchers from the airline. So now we have 4 flight vouchers worth 1500 euros that we can only use in New Zealand, Australia, and Asia. Congratulations!!!

This story will stay in my memory forever and once again showed me the dimensions of our journey. In the past, I used to be afraid when I forgot my homework, but now I was in Singapore at the airport, speaking in English with an Asian flight attendant about visas and immigration regulations in other countries.

We can really use the four weeks in New Zealand to recharge and find new motivation for the last part of our journey!