Actually, it's the 19th February here. Pesky dateline. My computer has kept Toronto time and date, so I know what's what at home.
I've been here since the 16th but it's been so busy with settling in and all the activities we have been doing, this is a first chance for sitting down, looking out at the fine weather and writing about the experience so far.
I am in my late 60's and wondered whether this is an easily doable kind of adventure, seeing as a lot of it is with backpacks and buses. A sort of test.
Felt very vindicated on the morning I left. We have been having such a mild winter, going away to get away from the weather seemed to be fizzling. Luckily, the really cold weather came down on us a few days before departure, so I can truly say, I will not miss the cold. It was minus 21c that morning.
Six am start, taxi to the airport, all smooth. Checking in...all smooth.
The sunrise was spectacular.
Everything is spectacular when you are leaving on a trip.
A new thing since I went to London last year is the passenger triage. Shuffled off to a waiting, waiting room, called to line up according to departure time and through security, all smooth. I got the scan inside the "tube" this time. Hands up baby, hands up!
By the time all this rigmarole is done, the waiting time is only an hour and a half or so. Second coffee is in order here.
My window seat to see the world as a giant. Climb, climb to 30,000 feet or more and most of the trip is cloud cover. When we are over Denver and that whole region, it clears to mists, so I can see down to the desert areas. It seems to be stepped. We do not go over the Grand canyon at all this time.
Landing in LA around 1:30 in the afternoon, the runway grassy areas are covered with orange flowers. Not sure what they are, but must be a spring common one like our dandelions.
I love my travel agent. She was very smart and built in a long layover in LA, in case anything went wrong in Toronto, weather or mechanical. This meant that I could relax on arrival, have a nice lunch, walk over to the Bradley International Terminal with oodles of spare time. Checked in with Air New Zealand and went through the Security rigmarole again. This time with the tube scanner too, but what I noticed was, they told me to go through. In Canada, they had apologized profusely and explained what I was about to experience. In the US, go through, with a sense that a cattle prod was not impossible if you weren't quick about it. Very funny. Again,, all smooth.
Terminal art has always interested me and there is a lot of renovation going on at this one. Lots of art that was fun to listen to as well as watch. Maybe I will remember to take a video of this one when I return.
One of the monolithic ones.
This one, I think, is an exploration of string theory. Actually quite beautiful and spacy.
Wandering around is a form of exercise, right? After doing this for a while, I settled in a lounge area where I could do some legs up, reading and sending out email by wifi. I am travelling with both my netbook and with my newest aquisition, a Tablet. I think I am in love with the fun aspects of this device. I am also working at learning to take advantage of Dropbox, as an extra backup for my photos.
The lounge I settled in was a total throwback to the 60's, a Jetson's lounge.
Watched all sorts of activities and people with my feet on a footstool, water at my side and favorite book on my lap. For this trip. I decided to bring along "Creatures of the Rock", by Andrew Peacock. A gift from my brother at Christmas, who knows only too well how much I love anything about animals. Set in Newfoundland in the 70's 80's, a young veterinarian relates his true stories of the life, it's people and creatures. Just lovely.
I get to see a beautiful sunset here. Our flight does not leave till nine pm, so it is a bit of a long day, with the time zone change on top of all the rest.
We board. I do as an article I read suggested. Get settled in right away, nose in book or fall asleep. I' m not great at all of these things, but do my best. Immediately blow up my neck pillow. Okay, these things do not work very well if they are inflated completely. Fine as a flotation device maybe, but too much for just holding your head in the crook and being able to sleep. A bit of experimentation goes on here with hissing noises on filling and farting noises on taking off some of the pressure. Amusing myself, I guess.
As soon as the takeoff is complete, the dinner service comes out and food is pushed at us all. Feed us and tuck us in is the order of the day. Service over an hour later, it's lights out. I doze on and off for a few hours and then am awake and watch Martian. I do not go to movies, so the selection on the plane is excellent for me. I have not seen any of them. Martian was a wonderful McGiver kind of adventure. After this I drifted off to sleep (cat nap style) again and awoke at about the halfway point. Throughout this ride, I have been doing the exercises the chiropractor recommended. Knee flexes, muscle flexes etc and this either relaxes or wakes. I try to sleep sleep, realizing that there is still about five hours to go. That was a sort of peak of discouraging, cause I was tired at this point and really wanted to sleep. I do, a little. Later I watch another movie and this one is in the same theme, Gravity. I really enjoyed this one. I wonder what there will be on offer on the way back, but I don't want to think about then yet.
This aircraft has the bed type seats in business class. Luckily, we only get to see these once as we are boarding. I think that during the night, there were a lot of people (including me) who wished they had sprung the extra money for the bed.
Bling! breakfast time. A little face washing helps. A lovely omelet and coffee do too. You can never miss with tater tots.
We land in Auckland at about six twenty in the morning. I have a couple of hours to clear customs with baggage and get myself to the domestic terminal. It's a lovely 10 minute walk to that terminal and the sun is up. The smell of the sea (never very far away in New Zealand) fills the air. Tide is out. When we takeoff for Wellington, I can see all the drained flats with wonderful silvery streams making a lovely tracery in the dark sands.
I love the logo on the planes.
We arrive in Wellington. I arrive in Wellington. I start out in search of my luggage and a lady swoops to my side. It's my sister Nina, the reason I have come to New Zealand. Though we speak often on Skype, I have not seen her in six years. Practically makes me cry. I guess I really am tired.
A nice long walk to the car to shake out the old legs, drive to a lovely cafe near Miramar and have a wonderful lunch.
My visit has begun!
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