Advertisement
Published: April 15th 2010
Milford Sound
Fiordland cruise.I successfully wrapped up my all nighter last night and, after a rejuvenating shower, made my way to the airport. Finding a cab at 5:30 in the morning proved to be a bit challenging but, after a lot of gesturing, the second driver I found agreed to take me to the central station where I could catch a bus to the airport. When I reached the bus terminal, I came upon a shuttle driver who offered to take me to the airport in his half full shuttle. Haggling the cost down to the same as the bus and feeling somewhat safe that this guy was legit (there were other passengers and he probably just wanted to fill empty seats) I got on board and made my way to the airport with plenty of time to spare.
I would take a series of flights today - from Taipei to Tokyo to Chicago and finally to Philadelphia. The first one was on EVA Air. I hadn’t heard of this airline, which is affiliated with Star Alliance, but was pleasantly surprised when the coach seating was much like international business class, complete with semi-reclining back and footrests.
We made it to Tokyo
Auckland
Myers Park. on time - my biggest concern - and I had a few hours to kill. I would have liked to have caught a nap there but my body would not cooperate. Instead I read and grabbed some sushi at the airport.
When I was checking in to get my boarding pass there, some guy was brought up to the desk by a security worker. The guy was carrying a tripod, seemingly the source of a confrontation between the two. Security must have been giving him a fit about having this. I am still wondering why anyone would want to be burdened with carrying those things around. I trust he’s not a photographer for
National Geographic.
My United flight from Tokyo to Chicago, while very long, was uneventful. I watched a few movies and read. The most interesting part was that of time conception, as I arrived in Chicago before I left Tokyo. The international dateline crossing is fascinating.
At Chicago, things went south. Immigrations was a fiasco. The line was long and I was towards the end of it, thanks to some dawdlers who sat in front of me on the plane. When I finally was next
Queenstown
Nevis bungee jump. to go in one of the lines for US citizens, things came to a standstill. The couple in front of me, one of whom had an American passport and the spouse or traveling companion who had a foreign one, were heavily questioned by the immigrations agent. After about 10 minutes of this inquisition, the agent took them both off the line and into some other area of the airport.
Finally, he turned them over to someone more adept at dealing with them. After another 10 minutes (no exaggeration) I realized this wasn’t the case. He eventually returned and didn’t even offer an apology for the lengthy wait.
He asked me how I was doing and I told him “I’d be better if I wasn’t worried about missing my connecting flight.” With all the tact he could muster he offered that if I did I could surely just get on the next one.
Thanks asshole. You are merely a preview of what life is going to be like in the United Socialists of America.
I made it past, rechecked my bag, got through a hefty security line and got to my gate with just enough time to spare to
Queenstown
Queenstown Hill. pick up some food and water. I almost ended up on the wrong flight as there was another plane departing for Philadelphia at the exact same time from an adjacent gate on US Air, an airline company with which United codeshares. The US Air flight was delayed, causing some initial frustration until I discovered my error. Mine would be on time.
The final flight went very quick. I landed in Philadelphia and was greeted by my parents just outside security. We made our way down to baggage claim where I discovered that my bag was delayed, probably as a result of the extra 20 minutes I had to spend going through immigrations. The lasting effects of bureaucracy. Fortunately, my bag would reach me at home without a problem.
Over the past couple days, I have been up a very long time with minimal sleep so I had no trouble getting to sleep. Yet I would still wake up at 5 am, time zones irrelevant.
Over the coming two weeks, I’ll be home for a few days, will head off to Puerto Rico for Brian and Robin’s wedding, returning with a day and a half to finalize my
Queenstown
Rafting the Shotover. next big trip - trekking with Dave to Everest Base Camp in Nepal and a 16 day excursion to India on the way back.
This has truly been a remarkable trip. In the past two months I have seen places that few Americans will ever see. Some, like Saigon and Cambodia, were eye opening. Most were less impoverished than I expected, though I largely remained in tourist centers. Perhaps I prepared for the worst and was a bit numbed to it. Other places, especially Queenstown and Australia, were just a lot of fun.
This trip was much more enjoyable than Europe. I loved the sights there and met some great people, too, but here I met great people everywhere I went. I also didn’t care so much about seeing all the sights and was therefore probably much more open to the social side of travel.
As I close out this trip I’ll limit my proselytizing - I did enough of that in my individual entries - and instead reiterate a common theme throughout my travels: facing fear of the unknown. I have found this to be astoundingly helpful to my character development over the last year and
Queenstown
View of Queenstown. have been rewarded with many new and exciting experiences, friends and future opportunities. I encourage anyone who may read this someday to follow me by trampling their personal roadblocks and insecurities and pursue their dreams, whatever they are, and reap the rewards of a much more fulfilling life.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.45s; Tpl: 0.029s; cc: 14; qc: 67; dbt: 0.3547s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
