On our way

We took the Red-Eye to Brisbane last night and Junior Grendels Number One and Number Two had a great flight enjoying the novelty of air travel. Meals were served, drinks drunk, and chocolates offered and consumed. They then dropped off to sleep leaving Mrs Grendel and I to ride out the flight in a half-dazed state.

I have to compliment Qantas on their flight - it was great, good service, friendly staff and only a half-full plane even though they had downsized to a 737 from a 767.

I know that Qantas would have preferred a higher passenger ratio but from a traveller's perspective the extra space is most welcome.

We have two days here before heading over to Christchurch - this time it will be Virgin's Pacific Blue that gets the Junior Grendel inspection team and we hope they'll live up to the standards expected!

The value of the GPS was settled - Brisbane's roads have changed a lot since I was here last and it was great hitting the POI labelled 'Grandma's House' and just following the directions.

We caught up with the vast and growing Grendel Clan from the East and celebrated Junior Grendel Number Two's birthday. He had arranged this himself with a six-year-olds aplomb by telling grandma that his birthday party was at her house this year.

He got a Nintendo DS - as much for our sanity as for his enjoyment.

Will they bring us drinks?

Both the Junior Grendels are young travellers - 7 and 5. They have flown once before at ages 3 and 18 months so our only memory of travelling on an aircraft is a nightmare of screaming baby and sobbing toddler. I am sure it could possibly have been traumatic for the other passengers on the plane but no one was more traumatised than us.

Junior Grendel Number One has autism and at that point was had very limited language skills almost to the point of being non-verbal and when stressed he had a small range of ways to comunicate - his usual reaction was to scream - we called it a 'meltdown' and almost nothing could break through to him during one.

These episodes were utterly heartbreaking and you would imagine that he was totally closed off to the rest of the world and yet he seems to have an amazing memory of the trip.

One part I remember is that when we boarded the plane he looked around at business class and said - "Daddy, this is nice" eliciting laughs from all those already comfortably ensconced in their 42 inch pitch recliners while we ushered him to the rear of the aircraft.

He also remembers the cabin crew and a few weeks back when we were discussing the trip he uttered another gem - "Dad, while the servants bring us drinks this trip like they did last time?"

Once we stopped laughing I explained the role of the cabin crew and begged him NOT to refer to them as servants (I can't imagine any term more likely to guarantee a frosty reception).

Sill, I'm glad he at least has some fond memories of travel and one of the reason that I am looking forward to this trip is to banish some of the memories of the last one - his behaviour is usually very much that of any boy of 7 so I don't think we'll have too much screaming on this flight - apart from Mrs Grendel during turbulance.

Turbulance

Ok, it is more of a slight 'bump' in the plans. My instructors once told me that 'no plan survives contact with the enemy' well, the enemy in the case is the reality of air travel - sometimes flight schedules get shifted, and unfortunately this has happened one one leg of our trip. I've tried to book daytime flights to reduce fatigue on Junior Grendel Number One as he is unlikely to sleep on a night flight. Naturally the only change so far is that our daytime flight to NZ is cancelled and replaced with a nighttime one.

Best laid plans and all that.

I don't really blame the airline - but I have emailed them and asked for a bit more explanation as to why they want to complicate my life - but 'stuff', as they say, does happen, and this is definitely 'stuff'.

Now to get on with the task of shuffling hire cars and hotels to suit the new flight (pre-paid too, bugger. . .)

Come fly with me. . .

There is nothing like a global financial meltdown to shake up tourism. When you add pandemic on top of this you get the perfect storm that tourism boards and hotels dread, and budget conscious travelers love.

There is a web site (to which I shall not link) that promises the guaranteed lowest prices on the internet if you book your air ticket through them.

I've gotta say they can't be keeping up. I ended up looking at a variety of airlines and routes (including a ride on a 777 with Emirates from Sydney to Christchurch). In the end we decided to have a little of each from the Smörgåsbord of air travel that is available to New Zealand. I watched prices carefully over a month, then pounced as each airline dropped prices. We fly Qantas to Brisbane, Pacific Blue to Christchurch and Air New Zealand back home (it is the only airline with a non-stop flight home).

Very few airlines seem to run a 747 over the Tasman any more - a fact that distresses Mrs Grendel who prefers a 'real' aircraft. Junior Grendel Number One is old enough to remember his first flight and asked if the 'servants would bring him drinks again'. I'm working hard on that one - if he calls them 'servants' on the flight he might get a serve alright.

All up we are doing the trip with 4 people for just over $3000 in airfares which I consider reasonable given the stop-over in Brisbane for a few days to visit Grandma.

Fly with Junior Grendel Number One can get interesting as he is easily overwhelmed by constant noise and vibration. I have bought him a set of noise cancelling headphones which I hope will ameliorate the worst of the in-flight roar. I trialled them on a flight to Sydney last week and they worked a treat for me.

We went through a phase in our lives where we didn't think that we would find it possible to travel with a child with autism, but as it turns out he's a real trooper when it comes to new places as he has an almost insatiable curiosity. Unfortunately his curiosity is satiated at breakneck pace and he can do the largest of museums in less than half an hour.

The scary part is that afterwards he can give you a rundown of the whole series of exhibits that to me were merely a blur as I dogged his heels at high speed down the corridors.

They're already planning some in-flight entertainment for the first leg. I hope our fellow passengers area amused. . .