Embarking on trip 3

---

I arrived in Auckland this morning after a lot of travel time. All-in-all, the trip over took just over a day (before the 18 hour time change), with a ride to the Philadelphia airport, a flight to Los Angeles, a flight to Fiji and my final flight to Auckland. Fortunately, I was well aware of the schedule and how time consuming the trip down under can be so it was actually better than expected.

Along the way I started reading Robinson Crusoe, a book I felt fitting for my journey far away from home. And as I tormented my mom before I left, I thought it would be even more fitting if the plane went down and I became stranded on a deserted island. Obviously, this didn’t happen.

The flights were relatively uneventful, except at the check-in at Los Angeles when the ticket lady was dumbfounded how I could travel outbound with no return ticket.

“I’m backpacking and will be piecing the trip together as I go.”

“But you need a return ticket to enter New Zealand.”

“No, I need an outbound flight. Here’s my receipt for my flight to Melbourne .”

“I’m not sure if this will work.”

“It better work. This is all I can get and it is proof of a flight leaving the country. Like most airlines, they don’t issue tickets until I check in.”

She went to ask her colleagues, came back, started punching the keyboard and then noted, “This says you are flying to Melbourne from Christchurch .”

“I am. That’s where I am leaving New Zealand from and that’s my understanding of what New Zealand requires for a visa waiver.”

“But how are you getting to Christchurch?”

I’m gonna swim. I should have said it.

“I have a flight from Auckland to Queenstown on the 28th. Then I’ll take a bus up to Christchurch a couple days before I leave on February 4. That’s about 10 days from now.”

“And where do you go after Melbourne.”

What does that matter?

“I’ll be taking buses throughout the Australian East Coast, making my way up into and through Asia and leaving Asia sometime in April.”

“Oh. Okay.” After another timeout to go over things with her colleagues, “Let me print your ticket.”

“Wait. Before we went through all this where-are-you-going nonsense, I asked about changing my seat location since I couldn’t do it online and it’s a middle seat.”

“I can’t do that now. Check in with the customer service rep at the desk .”

Fortunately this guy knew what he was doing and had the seat resolved in no time.

After a lengthy security line (my second of the day), I found my gate and boarded the plane shortly thereafter. Even after flying commercially for years, it was the first 747 I had been on. The flight attendant pointed me to the staircase and told me to go upstairs. I’m thinking sweet, upgrade. No such luck - it was all economy.

But the nice thing was the whole section worth of empty seats. A couple other passengers asked about this. We learned we could use them once we reached cruising altitude. In other words, we had a lot of space for our overnight flight. I ended up with my own row of three seats all to myself.

I had hoped to push the first couple hours by watching a movie, then be able to easily fall asleep since it would be 2:00 am on the east coast. While I dined on a complimentary turkey and Swiss sandwich, I searched the movies. Some teen flick. A few kid comedies. Some movie with “Sack” from Wedding Crashers and The Hangover and Sandra Bullock. Okay, I’ll give it a go.

It was horrible. I have rarely in my life disliked a movie. This became one of a few. I went to sleep earlier than I thought I would.

After a rough night of sleep (even with the relatively plush sleeping conditions) I awoke to a complimentary breakfast. Other than the moron at the ticket counter, Air Pacific turned out to be a good airline.

While I dined, I put on the audio channels. One was a classical music station that was playing a piece I had heard somewhere before but I couldn’t place it. I kept listening and listening, trying to figure it out. The longer it went, the more irritating it got that I couldn’t remember where I heard it. The piece ended, a few more songs went by and finally it hit me. It was the piece that was on the stereo at the end of Weekend at Bernie’s, when the killer chases Larry, Richard and Gwen around the house. I rested easier the rest of the flight.

Finally, I arrived at Fiji for a three hour stopover until my flight to Auckland would leave. While there, I took a walk around and discovered a lounge area on the lower level outside the various club lounges. This was free and only a couple other people were there. The best part is there were a number of lengthy padded benches that a few of us used to catch some rack until our flights left.

Just before it was time to go, I overheard a girl squealing in a high pitched tome in the vicinity. “No. NO. NO! Oh my God. Oh my God no.” I could only help but think she had received word of a death. There’s no other reason for so strong a reaction to whatever she learned.

The three hour flight to Auckland was aboard another 747 and again I sat upstairs. The movies hadn’t changed so I spent my time reading and reviewing the recommended things to do and see in Auckland.

I arrived safely. And so did my backpack. I am always nervous with checked luggage.

The process of going through immigrations and customs was a time consuming one. The landing card was three times the size of a US or UK landing card and they tend to be strict. They were concerned about the usual drugs, animals, produce and explosives, but also things like camping gear and water sports apparel. I was even asked if I was carrying hiking boots or a tent. Very strange.

But the people were all very nice. From immigrations to customs and the Air New Zealand rep I asked about my Thursday flight to the bus driver, all were very welcoming, courteous and helpful.

I checked into my hostel this afternoon. After a refreshing shower, I walked around town for a bit. The hostel is on “K Road”, a road with lots of cheap eateries (many of which are kebab stands), bars, shops and red light establishments.

On my walk back along K Road towards the hostel I came upon the entrance to Myers Park. I walked around the park for a bit and then found a bench and sat out in the sun. The weather here is perfect - about 75°F and very sunny.

After an hour or so, I returned to the hostel before going back out to find something small for dinner. With the weather as beautiful as it was and the sun not setting until 8:30, I grabbed a sandwich and returned to the park.

Back at the hostel, a few people were watching Mr. Woodcock in the common area. I joined in and made my way to bed around 10:30, after a very long couple days.

Tomorrow I explore Auckland some more.

---

Photos

Auckland
Views of Auckland from the Grafton Bridge.

747
The monster of a plane that took me from Fiji to New Zealand.

Myers Park
The vivid green vegetation in the middle of the city.

Skyline
The skyline from Myers Park.

K Road
One of the main roads in Auckland and the one on which my hostel is located.