Trip to New Zealand part 1
I took 3 weeks off to go to New Zealand to go to the Air Show at Wanaka as well as to visit the folks. I booked my tickets through a travel agent who managed to get me a ticket for $1,300 rather than the $1,600 on the internet.
I was expecting to use my laptop while waiting for the plane to load up. There were about 3 electrical sockets and none of them was near a seat. So I used up my battery power as the sockets were taken up by people willing to sit on the floor.
I am used to boarding a plane via a walk-on bridge. However, Qantas ( and in earlier years when I went by Air New Zealand) bus passengers to the waiting aircraft. So boarding was a matter of riding the bus for perhaps 10 minutes to be dropped off at the base of the boarding walk for our walk onto the 747-400, parked in all it's splendor on the taxi-way.
The flight was smooth and un-eventful. There were a wide choice of movies, way more than I could hope to watch and a lot more audio than could be listened to despite my preference for classical music.
The food was tasty and enough to keep away any hunger. I was pleased to have some salad which was quite crisp.
I landed in Auckland and wandered through the duty free looking for some Brandy for my Mom and some chocolates for my brother. I already had something for my brother brought all the way from Sears in the USA - Levi 505's.
Immigration and customs were no problem and I emerged out the overseas arrivals gate to find my brother just arriving through the door from the carpark. As I was flying on to Napier in about 3 hours, we had a cup of tea in the lounge and caught up over whatever events had occurred since we last saw each other 16 months prior.
I tried out my cell phone and was pleased to find it worked. And my landlady had left me a message berating me for giving her spare door key to a friend of mine who was staying while I was away. Well, I must admit I should have let her know as she spent 5 minutes of confusion looking for the key which was no longer on her key chain of 16 years. Then she had to dive in her handbag to pull out the spare.
So we walked to the Domestic terminal after dropping off the jeans and 6 Kg of books in the car for my brother. The suitcase was a bit lighter after that.
You can get your own boarding pass and your own baggage tags at a station for this at the Air New Zealand station. I was somewhat befuddled with how to do the baggage label properly, but reading the instructions put me right eventually.
Then onward to Napier! On the approach it struck me that the hills were not very green and there were no sheep, cattle, deer or goats. The paddocks seemed empty.
My little brother was late. I was waiting outside for him for about 10 minutes enjoying the sun. And not enjoying that my cell phone did not work. It was searching and failing to find the cell signal. This is because T-mobile in NZ operates at a different frequency than in the USA. Not what I wanted!
Anyway, that is it for now. Next blog is about the trip to the Warbirds over Wanaka!
I was expecting to use my laptop while waiting for the plane to load up. There were about 3 electrical sockets and none of them was near a seat. So I used up my battery power as the sockets were taken up by people willing to sit on the floor.
I am used to boarding a plane via a walk-on bridge. However, Qantas ( and in earlier years when I went by Air New Zealand) bus passengers to the waiting aircraft. So boarding was a matter of riding the bus for perhaps 10 minutes to be dropped off at the base of the boarding walk for our walk onto the 747-400, parked in all it's splendor on the taxi-way.
The flight was smooth and un-eventful. There were a wide choice of movies, way more than I could hope to watch and a lot more audio than could be listened to despite my preference for classical music.
The food was tasty and enough to keep away any hunger. I was pleased to have some salad which was quite crisp.
I landed in Auckland and wandered through the duty free looking for some Brandy for my Mom and some chocolates for my brother. I already had something for my brother brought all the way from Sears in the USA - Levi 505's.
Immigration and customs were no problem and I emerged out the overseas arrivals gate to find my brother just arriving through the door from the carpark. As I was flying on to Napier in about 3 hours, we had a cup of tea in the lounge and caught up over whatever events had occurred since we last saw each other 16 months prior.
I tried out my cell phone and was pleased to find it worked. And my landlady had left me a message berating me for giving her spare door key to a friend of mine who was staying while I was away. Well, I must admit I should have let her know as she spent 5 minutes of confusion looking for the key which was no longer on her key chain of 16 years. Then she had to dive in her handbag to pull out the spare.
So we walked to the Domestic terminal after dropping off the jeans and 6 Kg of books in the car for my brother. The suitcase was a bit lighter after that.
You can get your own boarding pass and your own baggage tags at a station for this at the Air New Zealand station. I was somewhat befuddled with how to do the baggage label properly, but reading the instructions put me right eventually.
Then onward to Napier! On the approach it struck me that the hills were not very green and there were no sheep, cattle, deer or goats. The paddocks seemed empty.
My little brother was late. I was waiting outside for him for about 10 minutes enjoying the sun. And not enjoying that my cell phone did not work. It was searching and failing to find the cell signal. This is because T-mobile in NZ operates at a different frequency than in the USA. Not what I wanted!
Anyway, that is it for now. Next blog is about the trip to the Warbirds over Wanaka!
posted by Stephan Hokke at 11:18 PM
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