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Published: February 12th 2009
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Us at Burlington Airport - 4am!
Its all ahead - adventure awaits On our departure day, our friend Sue turns up at midnight, game to take us on a night drive to Burlington, although she doesn't like driving in the snow. Off we go by 12:30, gliding through gently falling snow over curvy mountain roads, allowing three hours for a two hour trip for safety's sake. Shortly after 3am we approach Burlington airport for our 6am flight to New York. Now we have time to kill at the deserted airport before the ticket counter opens at four.
Once it does, we are third to check in, at which point we discover we are overweight, or better said, Anthony and Grace’s bags are. We repair to the lounge for culling and shifting around of items. Grace's son, Joshua, turns up a little after 4am to see us off, and we load him up with some of our not-so-strictly-necessary items to take back home for us, so that we can pass muster.
Joshua is extremely gracious and good natured about this, especially considering his sacrifice of sleep on our behalf. We get the bags checked and moan just a little about our lack of foresight in not bringing snacks - the airport is
Sunrise over America
On the way to New York, we were rewarded with a great view shut tight until 6am, when we will be on the runway. But we do pass the weight check this time and Gracie has time to catch up with the latest in Joshua’s life before they call us to board.
The plane is a mere little thing, a cigarette sized tube with a crossways layout of two tiny seats, narrow aisle, one tiny seat. Paula gets the single and takes lots of pictures of the sunrise we’re rewarded with on our way down to New York.
Paula promises herself she will get a decent camera before the trip is over, because the pixel count isn't enough to handle the dusky morning very well. Still, we don’t doesn't get that kind of sunrise-over-the-clouds view often.
Groggy and excited to be underway, we arrive at Kennedy Airport, our last view of NY for quite a while (and it’s not even the famous skyline, but Queens). We haven't slept, so our excitement is mitigated by drowsiness. Fortunately we don't have to deal with our baggage as we get off to change planes; we are booked through to San Francisco on an 8:30am flight - wheeeeee… time to get a snack other
Queens, New York
Landing at JFK airport, first leg of our journey complete than airline peanuts or pretzels. Paula gets a muffin and coffee.
Soon, they call us and we board and we sit together in a row, over the wing, and Paula draws the window. It’s up and away, and a smooth ride across the skies above America. We fly to SF mostly over cloud cover, which is fine, since our route doesn't lead over any major landmarks or cities. The camera gets a rest and so do we, sort of...
Later in the morning Delta gives us the opportunity to buy sandwiches, which we do since the alternative is a pitifully small amount of free peanuts or pretzels. The sandwiches were not bad, although priced at a NYC level.
Then it’s San Francisco. City of Cable Cars, the Bay and THAT Bridge. We hoped to see a little of it in the few hours before the NZ flight took off.
First though, exhausted, we slept, using up some of those hours. Now we only had a tiny window to see it all, so the sightseeing was whirlwind. First we wandered a while, and stopped around the corner from our motel for a late breakfast at the bagelry,
With William and Huggy Bear
A wonderfully garrulous local that we met at breakfast - could have talked about his life and times all day! where we met William Paul. William and his best friend Huggy Bear intrigued us for a long while, William telling tales of his life in SF. We had to tear ourselves away lest he talk all day.
Next, we walked up the steep slope of Russian Hill, where we got the view of Alcatraz Island, and the Cable Cars as they slowly ascended towards us, with the noise of running humming cables under our feet. We went down the 'crookedest street' and to see more of the city in the time available, decided to take a tour.
Our open-top bus tour was about as serene as a NY Coney Island roller-coaster ride, careening crazily through curvy streets past low-hanging branches (Paula nearly lost an argument with one branch as the bus whipped its way along the parkway), accompanied by stiff breezes and chilly temperatures.
For her part, Grace had a Marilyn Monroe skirt-over-the-head adventure while trying to change to a less windy seat and we lost Anthony temporarily when the driver decided to move the bus around the corner, forgetting that Ant had gotten off to use the public toilet in Union Square. After some scary minutes
Chinatown, San Fransisco
Passing through Chinatown - it was during the Chinese New Year celebrations, and the streets were packed! of separation, we caught up with him on the next arriving bus, having harried our driver into calling that next driver and telling him specifically to look out for Ant.
Paula thanked herself through chattering teeth for having brought the felted-wool pullover, the one that had shrunk in the wash from XL-man-size to her size. And she shivered as much from cold as from the speed at which our drivers negotiated the route.
Nevertheless, we did see some great sites, some of which were really spectacular. A highlight was our view of and from the Golden Gate Bridge, which we zipped across both ways at an impressive clip. This speed was just as well, for at that point we were in danger of missing our New Zealand flight, or at least the shuttle bus that was to take us to the airport in time to make it. Anthony ran from the bus stop six or seven blocks to the motel to flag the shuttle driver down and arrange the retrieval of our luggage from the closet where motel management had allowed us to stow it after checkout.
However, the manager on duty was less than cooperative, making
Ant wait while he checked in two other clients, even though he knew the airport van was there waiting for us. And so it left. The company was rung and told that, no, we weren’t waiting for the next shuttle, as checking in at the airport after the plane had left wasn’t an option.
The driver duly returned for us after about 10 minutes, at which time Anthony was able to prevail upon the manager to take 5 seconds and enter the code to open the closet so we could get our luggage and catch the van. After all adventure we made it to the airport in good time. Ain’t travel fun?
The San Francisco International terminal is a cathedral-sized cavern that looks like it could double as an aircraft assembly building. As terminals go, it’s impressive, with lots of art and sculpture. We wandered through Customs, and the Homeland Security people gave us the twice-over while they looked for whatever it is they look for, including the ‘explosives-up-under-the-dress’ check and then at last we had our first slice of New Zealand as we met the crew who would take us through the night.
Overall, we did
like SF and would love to go back for a more leisurely look another time.
Anyone who has done long-haul will know that it’s not exactly FUN, twelve hours in a small tube with three hundred others. But Air New Zealand was great. We had two meals and three movies, and a period of standing up the back when sleep eluded us and the seating position paled. Overall, the flight went well, and finally, we saw and attempted to photograph our first glimpses of Auckland. Unfortunately, someone with a sense of humor had arranged for the flight to arrive early - at 4am - so a few blurred lights through low cloud was the only view of the city that we got from above.
At the terminal we discovered another welcoming feature: the morning shift of Customs Officers starts work at 5am - that’s an hour after we landed. There’s not a lot to do in Arrivals at 4am, just watch the minimal night staff try to process a plane-load of tired and scratchy souls without help. The queue moved like a line of half-asleep snails might move: occasionally, and with great effort.
But we had arrived.
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