10 March 2019:
Quiet morning and then we were on our way just after lunch to JFK airport. We got there early and had time for a leisurely cuppa and then met our tour group at 3pm. We are travelling with the Christian Zola Levitt group. Mum watches the show all the time. They all seem like lovely people. We appear to be a bit of a novelty as apart from 2 people from South Africa all the rest are Americans.
The Israeli security for the flight on El Al airlines meant each person or family group was personally interviewed. We had been warned to give no more info than necessary. So I was expecting more of a grilling but the trickiest question was “why have you travelled all the way from NZ to go to Israel?”. The interviewer seemed quite happy when I said “anywhere is a long way to travel when you live at the bottom of the world !” Some of our group were taken at the gate back to go through their bags. Apparently all quite normal. The flight was 9 hours and pretty standard except no wine on the menu ! Gin helped :). Was amazing to see the Jewish men getting up and putting on their prayer shawls in the middle of the night and praying facing Jerusalem.
We landed in Tel Aviv and basically walked straight to the bus. A quick stamp in the passport, no arrival / declaration cards and no one checked bags for anything !
Tired from the flight we still had time to kill until the hotel check in so off we went on tour to the first site. The house of Simon the Tanner where Saint Peter apparently stayed before the conversion of Cornelius, the first gentile. Beautiful views across to Tel Aviv. Just stunning. Then hotel, dinner & bed!
so glad you made it, have fun