Longhaul Travel tips

We are going to London in a few weeks and wondered if anyone had any tips for travelling with a 2 year old
We are leaving at 7:30 pm from Wellington, get into Auckland at 8:30pm then leave there at 9:45pm. I think the flight total is 26 hours and we have a 2 hour stopover in LA(from what I hear is pretty much spent waiting in line for darn security checks!) and we get into Heathrow at 11am. Theeeen we have a 4 1/2 hour drive to our final destination.

We have flown domestic with her lots of times but only ever 60-80 minute flights so I don't really know how to cope with sleeps, play etc for that ammount of time. We have a portable DVD player that we can take with lots of Hi 5 DVDs but apart from that I'm stumped on ideas. Aaaand to top it off she has really severe food allergies so can't eat any of the food provided- we have to take all our own for the whole time and she eats at least her weight in food every day

Any tips would be really appreciated!

Chilly bag for food? Only thing I would suggest is ask about what food you can take on the plane as you have a few stops and with the "biosecurity" stuff.. Not sure if that only applies for the country your going into or stopovers too...
Also for her to prepare for the trip ask her to help pack her bag (for the plane) and maybe as becca said add some surprises when she goes to bed or something.
Good Luck and have fun!

make sure when you pack, write everything down in terms of any medication or food items you might have. saevs time later. also pack those on the top of your bag to save having to ferret through them if they aren't okay. should be able to carry food opn the planes with you, just chuck before you go through customs- whether that is in your stopover place or final destination.

crayons and paper are always good.

Hehe some great ideas guys thanks!
If anyone has anymore please keep em coming!

Air NZ all the way- as far as I know we are only getting off then getting back on the same plane in LA. I'm not sure if they will let me leave any food on there or not. I've hunted all over their site and can't find anything- might have to ring up. We saved over $2k by booking through them even though I have heard other airlines can be better to travel with- they also don't serve peanuts which is positive for us.

Also those bottles you get from the supermarket with the straw are good (tommee tippee or something) - cause while they are drinking juice / water etc it has the same effect as lollipops... Arna gives her lollipops back to me on the plane so Im glad I had that!!

Air NZ now has the individual entertainment screens in the back of every seat on long haul flights to the states, and when we flew to Canada via San Francisco they looked to have a pretty good selection of kids stuff and stuff for grown ups - so that might help keep her occupied as well. Also, as far as I'm aware they won't let you leave any food on board during a stop over that isn't prepped by the airline itself (ie: the meals that are already on board), it gets complicated with how customs regulations work, but yeah. You should be able to buy some snack foods when you stop over anyway to make up for what you have to ditch, although I'm not personally a big fan of LA airport.

Hi- yeah once they're 2 they have to have their own seats. The only problem with getting snack food at the airport is that Charlotte has really severe food allergies and there isn't alot that she can eat packet wise.

Thanks for all the help guys!