Kuala Lumpur Stopover – New Zealand Day 2

by Alan Cole · Friday, November 9th, 2012

We arrived at Kuala Lumpur Airport at 17:32 Malaysian time after a 12 hour and 22 minute flight from Heathrow. We now had a 4 hour and 18 minute stopover in the transit terminal. I’d planned a quick session in the gym at the transit terminal hotel so headed off there. Whilst there I met Derek and his wife. Derek was also an age-group athlete travelling to Auckland for the Triathlon World Champs. We had a chat and a quick spin on the bikes in the gym along with a small core workout. Nothing too much, just and excuse to move about a bit between flights and have a shower.

Kuala Lumpur

Anna, Morgan and my parents meanwhile explored the transit terminal and then we all met up for a little wander through the Rain Forest Boardwalk and a coffee and cake. It was then time to board Flight MH131 to Auckland. Anna as usual was doing a good job of handling all the paperwork, tickets , passports, boarding cards etc and we were soon through security and ready to board the flight.

Flight MH131

This flight was a 10 hour flight covering 5408 miles aboard a Boeing 777. The 5 of us were sat in the middle row seats, so no window seats again, but the food was good and there was wine and beer available for free too. I managed to resist temptation though as I was trying to be good and stick to my ‘diet’ especially as the race was looming. Morgan thought the ‘Spicy Prawns’ for breakfast were called ‘Mighty Prawns’, a name that stuck for the whole holiday.

This flight was a little quieter, the first one had been really noisy for some reason but I still didn’t manage to sleep at all. The flight was OK but we were all glad to get off the plane at Auckland after two full days of travelling.