Advertisement
Published: July 21st 2014
Hi again,
This will be the last diary entry for this trip (That's what these blogs have been for me, instead of writing up a 'paper' diary as I did on our first big trip in 2008, I started writing the blogs on our 2011 trip and many people said they enjoyed reading them so I continued doing them on this trip. After our 2011 trip Joy found a site that published all the blogs in a hard covered book. She spent some weeks correcting spelling, grammar etc. and added a heap of new photos and the 210 page book is still read regularly by both of us just to remind us what a fantastic time we had on that 2011 8 week trip)
We are back in Waipukurau, arriving home around 6pm after driving from Auckland during Sunday.
We arrived in Auckland rather later than scheduled after the flight from Honolulu was about an hour and a half late leaving. We hung around the airport reading etc. etc. waiting for our flight and what a hassle it all was.
We got the Wiki Wiki Shuttle bus down to gate 32, as per our tickets, and after sitting there for a bit heard an announcement over the speakers advising that our flight, Hawaiian Airlines flight 445 to Auckland, had been moved to gate 26. So down the concourse we trudged again!!only to find that the gate seating area was full with a flight going to Los Angeles which was running late so we had to sit outside and read for about 45 minutes. Thank goodness there was a nice cool breeze blowing that kept us a bit cooler!!
We were eventually able to get a seat in the gate seating area and waited and waited and waited for our flight to be called. We were due to leave at 2.40pm but finally got airborne around 4.25pm. I shot a quick text message off to my sister Denise who was picking us up in Auckland letting her know of the delay. We were due in Auckland around 10pm so the extra 90 minutes was going to make it late.
However even though this flight was late, Hawaiian Airlines have been just great to fly with. We have always been very loyal to Air New Zealand with all our flying over the years but this time Hawaiian were very good on price compared to Air NZ and, of course, they had the massive baggage allowance of 2 x 32kg bags each which no one else matches. Their inflight service has been brilliant with great food and snacks etc. on all the flights. We would have to recommend them after our experience on this trip.
We eventually lifted off around 4.30pm Hawaiian time and settled in for the usual boring 9 and a half hour flight. The captain said he would try to make up some time but that didn't seem to happen as it was nearly 11.25pm NZ time when we finally landed in Auckland.
We then sat on the tarmac for quite a while the aircraft interior was subjected to something I haven't had happen on arrival in NZ from overseas for many, many years. We were advised by the flight attendant that we would have to stay seated while the aircraft was sprayed with insecticide. We waited while they connected up the airbridge and an officer from Ministry of Ag came on board. The flight attendants then went through the plane and opened all of the overhead luggage lockers. They then walked slowly up and down the isles spraying insecticide into the lockers. We then had to sit and wait about 5 minutes and were then allowed to get up, gather our carry on stuff and disembark. Don't know if this happens with all flights or just those from what is considered riskier places.
Anyway we got off the plane and immediately felt the cold!!!!! We were still in our shorts and summer wear of course but had jerseys packed in the outside sleeves of our bags but had a fair bit of time before we got them.
The trek to the baggage was the usual long one and we then waited and waited and waited. Our 4 bags were literally the last ones unloaded onto the baggage carousel. There was a period of time when we actually wondered if they were on the plane!!!
We headed to immigration which is really quite quick now at Auckland with the new electronic passports.
We were carrying quite a bit of 'food' in one form or another, chocolate macadamias, Hershey's Chocolate bars, packets of M&Ms that Ted gave us, sweets and dried pineapple from Dole, flavoured tbags that Joy had found etc. etc. etc. So, of course, I declared everything expecting to get 'looked at' by Agriculture. However honesty paid off again and when we were asked what exactly we had and explained it from a list Joy had made, the officer after ascertaining we had nothing 'fresh', waved us straight through the 'Out' lane, never even had to go through and have the bags x-rayed. Brilliant!!!
Denise was still waiting and had jackets for both of us. We had come from 3 weeks of temperatures both day and night of between 25 - 35 C and Auckland was around 8C when we landed. Maybe those hot humid days which we might have complained of as uncomfortable weren't so bad after all!!!!!
Denise drove us to her home where we finally got to bed around 1.45am.
Sunday morning we got up and after the usual morning things, loaded up our car and headed over to Dad and Mum's for a cuppa with them and Annette and Tony before hitting the road around 11.15am.
Was a bit strange driving on the left side of the road again after driving for 2 weeks in the States but that quickly sorted itself in my brain. The weather was quite good and we had sunnies on until we hit the top of the Napier-Taupo Road when the weather closed in and the temp dropped from about 14C down to 7 C and rain set in. It rained most of the way home and we unpacked the car in light rain around 6pm.
Everything was still intact at the house, thank goodness and Robyn and Trevor had very kindly been in and turned the heat pump on and left a couple of lovely muffins for us. So the living room was quite cosy. THANK YOU!!!!!
We eventually went down to the supermarket to get milk and bread etc. and sat down and had a light dinner while we watched the final of 'Broadchurch' on MySky (Never saw that ending coming!!) and then went to bed, in our own bed for the first time in 3 weeks.
Monday started just like every work day ( except I didn't have to go to work) because Joy had to start back at school today. I don't go back to work until tomorrow.
So that's it folks!!!
Once again thanks for following us on this trip. As I've said before these are not holidays, they are trips where we do as much as we humanly can to maximise the experiences. We suffer for it for a few days after we finally get home but it is certainly fun while it lasts.
Haven't got any new photos as the last blog brought you up to date with those.
Our next planned trip is to Rarotonga in April next year. Ryan and Miri got married there in 2005 and we are all going back for their 10th wedding anniversary. Their kids are all coming as well as Rhys and Megan and some of their friends as well. We have booked a big complex where we can all stay together as a family for a couple of weeks. It is right on the beach on the southern side of the island near Wigmores Store (for those who know the place). However not much thought being given to that at the moment while we settle back into normality as quickly as possible.
Just a final 'THANKS' to Albert, Judy, Becky, Ted, Nicki and the girls for the fabulous time we had in upstate NY in Watkins Glen and surrounds. Your hospitality isn't taken for granted and we had the most fantastic time catching up with you, and many of your friends, again. Looking forward to Ted bringing his family out to NZ at sometime in the future??????
Catch you all next time!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.219s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 15; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0552s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Bron
non-member comment
Jealous much!
I love love love reading your blog.... Please don't forget about me next trip... Amazing photos Joy, would love to see more... You two manage to do so much in such over such a short time, perhaps next time you need to head home to the beach to lax out for a couple of days before hitting the grindstone again... Thanks again for a great blog, Bron..