Well, it started with a bang. We had a one hour window in SF to catch our flight to NZ. As we sat at the PDX airport and watched the monitor, I started to bite my nails. Our connecting flight was delayed and our window became smaller and smaller. Long story short, we took off 40 minutes later (that left a 20 minute window to catch our international flight). When we arrived at SF we had to sprint to the international annex (sprint may not be accurate because I'm not sure that is truly possible in clogs . .. ). The doors closed right after we jumped on that plane. We did wonder if our baggage would make it.
Concerns vanished quickly as we were greeted with a glass of champagne. A very friendly (and loquacious) Kiwi sat next to us and we learned everything about wine and beer and writing software for machines that load pallets in Mexico and Brazil and everywhere and life in Christchurch and edible fish in NZ and yawn, yawn, yawn . ..I switched seats with Joel. A lovely 5 course meal followed with a glass of NZ Sauvignon Blanc (yum) and pretty soon the sounds of the screaming child behind me became a kind of unpleasant hum rather than screech.
Awful movies and Ipod useless because I brought my external ear pieces rather than internal buds so I stared out the window into the black and star filled sky. Orion was sitting on his side. I did not have to look up to see him--he was right there next to me! So many stars! Then, no stars. I saw a glowing sliver of orange off to the east and mistook it for a light on the wing. It continued to glow and became larger very slowly and then it emerged--the moon in a beautiful warm orange. As it rose, it changed to a soft yellow that lit up a small part of the dark sky. The Southern Cross now showing itself separate from all other celestial lights.
We napped off and on--I took a half a Xanax and Joel took Ambien--but much too late. We finally slept, but then the lights flipped on and they were serving us a smoothie at 4AM. I may have had a Denny's breakfast at 4Am or a Voodoo donut at 4AM, but I am quite sure that I have never had a smoothie at anytime between the hours of 5PM and 8AM. The 3 course breakfast followed and I said no to the next two course that were offered. Hey Air New Zealand, just give me more leg room and quality movies--I don't need no stinkin' 5 course breakfast.
We arrived in Auckland with a small layover. We grabbed a flat white, changed some currency, used a real bathroom and then ran into our buddy, Andrew, again who wanted to talk about the meth problem in large NZ cities. Yawn.
They fed us breakfast again on this flight. We weren't hungry but figured we might not eat as well on our budget, so we went for it. We had planned pretty well for this trip, but did not rent a vehicle. We did not have a problem on our previous trip to NZ, so we figured we would wait until we got to Christchurch. . ..oops going to lose my internet time here . ..so I've got to stop and then pay again. OH, the car thing . .....hah! xoxo
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