Next Stop: New Zealand

Bob and I are in New Zealand. It was a long slog to get here, and we almost didn’t get out of Austin. We flew Delta and then Virgin Australia. The Delta Boarding agent called us to the gate shortly before the boarding process started to ask us if we had a visa to visit New Zealand. We didn’t need one since our stay is shorter than 3 months. We showed her info online that supported that. Her co-worker confirmed it, but her system wouldn’t let her proceed without the visa info, so she ended up having to call and get verbal approval. That person provided approval but wouldn’t document anything online to support her override of the system, so she had her co-worker type the approval so she could let us get on the plane. Apparently boarding agents get penalized for letting individuals on planes who don’t have approval to enter the country to which they are flying. We were very relieved when we were on the plane and it took off for LAX.

We arrived in LA about 6:30 pm, and our flight to Sydney, Australia didn’t leave until 11:45. The LAX Bradley International Terminal is interesting, but not really 4+ hours interesting. We were both amazed at the number of late night (to us) flights. We kept waiting for things to quiet down and stores to start to close, but we never saw it. People just kept coming in and new flights kept getting posted.

The 15 hour flight to Sydney was as comfortable as you’d think a long time spent sitting in a confined space would be for that length of time. We did luck out in that we had reserved an aisle and window seat in a 3-seat row hoping that no one would take the middle seat and that’s what happened so we had a bit more space than we might have. I don’t usually watch the movies on offer, but I did this time and was impressed. If you have a chance to see Stan and Ollie about Laurel and Hardy’s final year touring together across the UK take it, it’s a sweet movie. I also watched Free Solo (as did Bob who had already seen it) about the only guy to complete a free solo ascent of El Capitan. Still don’t get the desire there but completely in awe. Finally, Bob and I both watched a 30 min documentary on Sriracha sauce. Fun and interesting — the sauce originated in Thailand but the one most of us eat in the US (picture of rooster on bottle) was created by a Chinese man who came to the US from Vietnam and it’s made in CA.

We landed in the Sydney International terminal and were there for 2.5 hours until our flight to Auckland. We were dreading it because the last time we had to fly in there it was incredibly noisy and sterile with little room to walk around. We found it pleasantly changed. It was bright and quiet. They have even designated themselves as a quiet terminal (see below). Not sure what this means exactly, as people were talking without being hushed but they have obviously made some sound-proofing changes.

I know it’s just McDonald’s and it’s not the first use of this technology but for our sleep-deprived brains it provided a few minutes of entertainment.

After a 2.5 hour flight from Sydney we arrived in Auckland at 3:30 pm on Friday having left Austin at 5:15 pm on Wednesday, but we weren’t done yet. Prior to starting our house sit in Auckland, we wanted to revisit New Plymouth where we had done a 6-week house sit in 2015. Since it’s a 4+ hour drive from Auckland to New Plymouth, we decided to shorten the initial drive by only going as far as Hamilton the day of our arrival. It was a good decision because after having picked up our bags, calling the shuttle to take us to the offsite rental car agency, and then heading out in Auckland rush hour traffic the 1.5 hour drive was closer to 2.5 hours. We arrived at our motel at 6:45 pm. Bob got right back into his “wrong”-side of the road driving skills.

The motel gave us the typical New Zealand welcome — milk to take to your room to go with your tea or coffee.

It’s now Sunday and we are rested and loving this beautiful country. More travel news and photos to come.