Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, April 6/7/8, 2010.
Somehow I managed to drag myself out of bed at 6:45 in order to get a five-mile run and a shower in this morning before we left. I thought it would make me feel better in the long run, and I think that it probably did. Left after a hard goodbye to the cats, we were lucky that they were their normal morning selves and not extra snuggly, as that would have ended in me crying a lot harder. I figured the drive would be the worst part of the trip, but between the four of us and the conversation, it wasn’t actually too bad. Pulled into Minneapolis and ended up eating at Don Pablo’s, Tim had made a comment about the lack of Mexican food in New Zealand, so it was figured that we should have Mexican food.
Finally we headed to the airport. We got checked in (they needed our visas, which was obnoxious, because regular tourists didn’t need them) and waited outside security for a bit. Mom took pictures, the inevitable was avoided. But finally we hugged our good byes. Somehow the “See you next week” helped. Mom managed to not cry until we were in line for security. We walked around the shopping center portion of the airport for a while, just trying to kill time, but with the weight and bulk of our giant backpacking backpacks and drawstring bags, we couldn’t meander too much. Got to the gate, and the fact that we had a solid 24 hours of travel ahead of us finally hit. The misery that was to be experienced was just like, uh… what? It’s clearly not hit either one of us yet. We have no idea what we are doing and what compelled us to do so. Everyone else seems more excited for us than we are (minus Dad). But I think the misery of the travel is weighing heavier on us right now than the idea of being in New Zealand. The first half hour, at least of the flight was super rough. Uncomfortably so. Our seatmate started to get chatty, then calmed down until landing. It was turbulent various times, but never as bad as that first part.
Landed. Got slightly confused and frustrated when trying to find the proper terminal for our big flight. Found our gate, disappointed that there was no real food or shopping here since we had three hours til take off, which means at least two til boarding. We got changed into comfy flywear soon after our $8 Starbucks snack and got ready to board the plane.
Walking onto the flight was ridiculous, mood lighting, all of the staff was super cute and peppy. The in flight entertainment started as soon as safety instructions were over, which was so nice and different than other flights. Over 50 movies to choose from, 50+shows, music, games, interseat chatting. I want to fly V Australia everywhere. Each seat had a blanket, pillow, eye mask, earplugs, and headphones, and they later passed out water bottles that could be refilled at filling stations on the plane. There was also a snack bar further back. Tim and I picked Avatar to watch first (despite my huge battle to never see it). They turned the lights down from the calm sunset lighting to the nighttime blue lighting. It was super uncomfortable and restless for the first 2.5 hours, but then the teenager said he was moving to the back of the plane, so Tim moved to the window and I got to lay out and sleep on two seats for three hours. Right before breakfast, the mood lighting came back up to sunrise esque. Landing was pretty sweet, getting to see Australia for the first time. We didn’t think we had to go through security again though, so when we learned we did, we got a little more worried with the time crunch that we already had. And annoyed since we had to chuck a full bottle of purchased water. Sydney airport was super hot and humid. We finally got in line to board and when we got up there I got through, but Tim got pulled aside .It turned out that Tim’s visa application had the wrong birth date so something got weird and it just needed to be fixed. We got it straighted out and got onto our Emirates flight. The double decker plane. Definitely a different vibe in this plane. Quite older and more ghetto. Also, having come from Dubai, it definitely had a different culture. There were the women not just in the burkas, but totally veiled, which is very strange to me. All of the plane instructions were in Arabic first, as well as the reading materials. Just got a strange vibe overall. We didn’t take off until 45 minutes after scheduled take off time due to a long wait on the tarmac, but it seemed to be ok, because there was the individual entertainment again. Including movies not yet released in the US. An interesting feature is the three different camera views that you can watch as you fly. Underneath the plane, pilot view, and from the tail.
Overall, the flight was the smoothest of them all, despite being a double decker plane. So after 35 hours of travel, we were finally in New Zealand. Even from out the windows it was clear that it just looked different, you couldn’t pin point it very well, but there was something about it. We got to customs, up to the first checkpoint, and there again, because of the weird birthday, there was trouble. It was hard to hear her, but finally we figured out what she was saying and we had to go sit and wait on a bench while they double-checked and we were okayed. Made it through customs and found the bus relatively easy. The driver was a maniac, and super fast, I thought we were going to have made it 25 hours of travel, ad then die on the bus ride to the hotel. The bus finally got to the CBD, which was a lot like Boston’s Financial District, and Tim picked one of two spots that we could get off. Only, once we got off and started in the direction, it was up the longest, most steep hill I have ever seen. I need to remember to get a picture of it, because hauling 70 pounds of luggage, or giant packbacks and then our mini packs up it, not really knowing how far we had left was miserable. But finally we turned at the top of the hill and went straight for another few blocks and made it to the hotel, and was very pleased. Queen bed, TV, couch, mini kitchenette with sink, stove top, mini fridge, toaster, and microwave. Good enough!
We wandered the direction of town, after we had gone back up to the room for our jackets (once the incredibly intense sun goes down, it gets chilly quick). We went into a mall-ish area and found this AMAZING store. Everyone here dresses exactly how we would want to dress if we could find the clothes. This store was like hitting the jackpot. Same with shoes. Everyone’s shoes here are phenomenal. Girls, boys, its sweet. We both have a feeling we are going to end up buying way more clothes than we should here, and shoes. Moving along, we found a store exactly like Foster’s in Philly, so that was cool. Saw a LOT of Subways. AND a Pita Pit, which was almost disturbing. Wandered around looking at different stores. It seems that it is all little food kiosks, fashion stores, and weird convenience stores with a few businesses and banks intermixed.
It was only 5:30, but we were starving. The place we picked was called Invito. The service was interesting. They just didn’t seem to pay attention, like we were supposed to ask for everything. We were seated outside, and there were heaters, it was fine at first, but near the end of the meal I was getting really cold in my jacket and jeans, despite having worn the same thing only hours before and been sweltering. I ordered the Greek Lamb Salad, and almost instantly regretted it when Tim ordered Lamb pizza, because I had wanted pizza, but wanted to stay healthier. We waited for quite awhile before our food came. But when it did, it was delicious, my salad was really good, including the lamb, and I snagged a bit of Tim’s equally as delicious pizza. But waiting for the bill, we waited and waited, and waited.
Finally we asked for it and she seemed surprised. Our goal was to stay up til 10, but we could see that that was unlikely. My body was still hungry, and at home it was around 2 in the morning, so I think it was just super confused. Back up the hill, made it to the hotel and switched on the TV. About 10 channels. None of them interesting most of the time, but because a few were New Zealand based, we were enthralled for a while before Tim started falling asleep. Although, New Zealand commercials are quite fantastic. So we said forget the organizing and picking the next days events, we just went to sleep. At 8:30. Assuming we would be up at an ungodly hour and could do all those things then. The bed was soft, and I am pretty sure I was asleep in less than 60 seconds.
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