The Hits: Holiday gets off to a long flying start

The Hits DJs Adam Green and Megan Banks. Photo/File

I read a wonderful quote the other day about the school holidays. "Parents don't appreciate how grossly underpaid teachers are until they experience the school holidays." So true.

We're in the second week of the school holidays now, and during the first week I thought it would be a great idea to bundle up the children and take them on a holiday by myself to the South Island to stay with my sister and cousins in Christchurch.

I love going home to Canterbury, but my bank balance doesn't. It's such a shame it's so expensive to get a glimpse of those beautiful Southern Alps.

Anyway, off we set early last Tuesday morning, all aboard the 6.30am flight.

It was a picture-perfect day when we left Napier, but sadly it was a terrible day in Christchurch and the airport was consumed with fog that didn't lift.

As we got nearer to our destination our pilot advised us we would be doing a u-turn and heading home again to Napier!

I was gutted for many reasons. It meant a day of our holiday was wasted as we weren't able to get on another flight until the same time the next day.

It also meant what was initially a one-and-a-half-hour flight was now a three-hour flight, with a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old.

As any well-intentioned parent on a flight with kids knows, every single minute is planned out.

You've got the excitement of take-off which takes up 10 mins, then at regular intervals after that you reach into your bag and throw snacks at them, you give them water bottles, the attendants give them something to colour in, they lose their pencils, you lose your mind and in between the chaos you try and scull a hot coffee and a biscuit.

And finally when you've used all your resources, you bring out a digital device with a downloaded programme on.

It works a treat! Until you have to turn around and fly back home again and the kids end up watching the same programme five times over without headphones!

Sorry to anyone who was on my flight and had to listen to an underwater cartoon called Octonauts. I at least hope you learnt something about the colossal squid!

As for the flight the next day ... Octonauts was called on a lot earlier in the flight to diffuse a fight over who got the arm rest.

Don't miss Adam Green and Megan Banks on The Hits Hawke's Bay from 6am to 9am, Monday to Friday